TMVolume 3, Issue 3 May/June 2001 This issue is co-sponsored by: UNESCO; Academy for Educational Development; Educational Testing Service The contents of this Issue do not necessarily reflect the policies or the views of the co-sponsors or their affiliates Thematic Focus: Technology for E-Learning in the Workplace 5 E-Learning Beyond the Workplace Wadi D. Haddad, Editor The growing knowledge economy is transforming the dynamics of the workplace. New trends are creating new realities; new realities are requiring new tools; and new tools are giving birth to new possibilities. 7 E-Learning Growth and Promise for the Developing World Joanne Capper, World Links for Development, The World Bank A growing number of organizations are now delivering training and education over the Internet. This article gives an overview of e-learning, its current status, its benefits, what the future holds, and what it promises for the developing world. 11What Isn’t E-Learning Cher Ping Lim, Ph.D., National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore This article dispels four common myths about what e-learning is by discussing what e-learning is NOT. In doing so, this article establishes what e-learning must be about and what questions corporations should ask when evaluating e-learning. 13 The Role of E-Learning in Training and Development Kurt D. Moses, Vice President, Academy for Educational Development E-learning offers a powerful alternative to a traditional form of training that has worked for many centuries. Here we see what factors are driving corporations to make e-learning a priority. 15 How Information Technology Can Help Development: Opportunities and Obstacles Mary Fontaine, The LearnLink Project, Academy for Educational Development ! 1 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org This article explains the connection between IT and development, describes some of the “e-opportunities” and entry points to developing countries, and identifies some of the conditions that must be in place for participation. 19 TechKnowNews ♦ India and Brazil Are Bringing Computers to the Masses ♦ Legislation Introduced in USA to Encourage IT Training in the Workplace ♦ Latin America’s Widest Reaching E-Learning Solution is Launched ♦ Virtual Cell Site Wins Pirelli “INTERNET”ional Award ♦ University Libraries in Developing Countries Gaining Greater Access to Academic Journals. 21 The Rio Salado Experience: Partnerships – An Essential Ingredient for E-Learning in the Workforce Dr. Linda M. Thor, President, Rio Salado College When you don’t have a campus, you tend to get rather creative about delivery formats. The Rio Salado College serves 50,000 students annually through customized, unique programs and partnerships, accelerated formats and distance learning. 25 India: How NIIT Brings People and Computers Together…Successfully! C.N. Madhusudan, President, Strategic Alliances, NIIT USA Inc. Since 1982, NIIT has been bringing quality computer education to vast numbers throughout India despite almost insurmountable obstacles. Now, with the power of online learning, even geographical constraints have disappeared. This is the story of how India is joining the Information Technology revolution. 29 Corporate E-Training: Three Examples from Across the World Sonia Jurich Corporations are adopting e-learning to train and re-train their workforce. This article summarizes solutions found by corporations located in three different parts of the globe, to meet their training needs. 31 Higher Education and Enterprise Training in Latin America: The Case of the Virtual Campus of Peru’s Higher Technological Institute Laurence Wolff and Norma Garcia, Inter-American Development Bank Higher education institutions in Latin America are only beginning to realize the potential of working with and supporting industry and commerce through Internet based learning opportunities for technical and professional workers. This article describes a rapidly expanding program being undertaken by Peru’s Higher Technological Institute (TECSUP). 33 Honduras: Solar Energy Bridges the Digital Divide Aimee Verdisco, Education Unit, Inter-American Development Bank, and Analyda Melara de Fanconi, Minister, Honduran Council for Science and Technology San Ramón, a remote village located in the hills of Honduras, is proof of the power of technological leapfrogging over traditional barriers to development. This community has become the world's first solar powered community hooked up to the Internet. ! 2 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org 35 Distance Learning in Developing Countries: Is Anyone Measuring Cost-Benefits? Stephen Ruth and Min Shi, George Mason University This article reviews distance learning in the context of developing countries and examines how to determine its value, cost and yield. The author also suggests some implementation approaches through a case study in China. 39 The Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving from Promise to Practice Kathleen Fulton, former Project Director, Web-based Education Commission This article highlights the Report of the US Congressional Web-based Education Commission, which studied the use and impact of the Internet in enhancing learning opportunities for all in schools, universities, and the workplace. 43 Business, Corporate Universities and E-Learning John Y. Jones, Master’s Degree Student, George Washington University A corporate university today is in a favorable position in relation to traditional universities. Some companies are even creating entire degree programs in cooperation with traditional universities. 46 The Role of the Instructor in E-Learning Collaborative Environments Lucio Teles, Stacy Ashton, Tracy Roberts, Irina Tzoneva, Simon Fraser University This article summarizes the results of research that evaluated the role of instructors in e-learning environments. 51 E-Learning Buyer’s Guide Gregg B. Jackson, Associate Professor and Coordinator, Education Policy Program, George Washington University It is essential that when shopping for e-learning, both corporate training officers and individual students do so with caution. Here are four guiding steps. 53 Development of a Skilled I.T. Workforce: Strategies, Standards and Resources Joanne Capper, World Links for Development Program, The World Bank There are a number of strategies that various countries are taking to support and enhance the development of skilled IT personnel. This article discusses five such strategies. 56 Digital Divide or Digital Bridge? Exploring Threats and Opportunities to Participation in Telecenter Initiatives Raul Roman and Royal D. Colle, Development Communication Research Group, Cornell University This article identifies the main obstacles to community and individual participation in telecenter initiatives and the strategies to overcome them. ! 3 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org 60 E-Learning Solutions Editorial Staff This article describes fora such as chat rooms, webcasts, email and videoconferences that are being used as e-learning tools in a wide variety of educational and corporate settings. 62 WorthWhileWebs John Y. Jones, Master’s Degree Student, George Washington University There are multitudes of resources found on the web related to e-learning in the workplace. Here you will find a handful of these e-learning resources, both for the corporation interested in starting a corporate e-learning program, and for the student interested in enhancing workplace skills individually. 64 Hearing the Sights: Seeing the Sounds! Tressa Steffen Gipe Remarkable progress has been made in the field of 3-D computer-generated animation, which can help people with autism, profound deafness, stroke-related aphasia and linguistic learning disabilities improve pronunciation, lip-reading, vocabulary, language fluency or other linguistic skills. 66 African Global Information Infrastructure Gateway Project: The Leland Initiative Academy for Educational Development Staff In recognition of the power of the Internet and its potential as an important development tool in the African context, the African Global Information Infrastructure (GII) Gateway Project – more commonly known as the Leland Initiative, was launched in February of 1995 and was designed to extend full Internet connectivity to a minimum of 20 sub-Saharan African nations. 68 Country Profile: Distance Education in Poland Miroslaw J. Kubiak, Polish Association of Teachers of Computer Science This article profiles four institutions that offer distance education in Poland: Distance Education Center at Technical University of Gdansk; Kielce University of Technology; The Distance Education Certificate Program at the University of Lodz; and Virtual University at the Institute for Vocational Training in Warsaw. EDITORIAL CALENDAR YEAR 2001 January/ February Management of Education Systems March/ April Science and Math Education May/ June e-Learning for the Work Place July/ August Social Action September/ October Early Childhood Development and Parental Ed. November/ December Language Education ! 4 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Wadi D. Haddad, Editor E-Learning Beyond the Workplace New Economies - New Realities The growing knowledge economy is transforming the dynamics of the workplace. The competitiveness - and sometimes the economic survival - of countries, firms and individuals depends on the intelligence, knowledge and updated skills of the workforce and on the efficiency, productivity and networking of the workplace. The new trends in the economy are creating new realities: • Competition, quality standards, and economic changes are not confined within country borders, and monopolies and protectionism are decreasing. • Acquired skills have a short life and many new skills are needed within the lifetime of an individual. • There is a proliferation of new products and services. • Work solutions are more flexible (telecommuting, virtual partnerships, etc.). • The workplace is becoming more global. Anything that can be digitized can be transmitted and worked on anywhere, provided the necessary knowledge and skills are available. • The knowledge-based economy is just beginning. We will experience further dramatic and unpredictable shifts. • The amount of information being generated is vast and it doubles every three years. The need is for building efficient and easily accessible knowledge bases and packages that can be tapped at any time to help solve problems encountered, formally and informally, in the workplace and in everyday life. Network technologies have the potential to deliver the most timely and appropriate knowledge and skills to the right people, at the most suitable time, in the most convenient place. This is what E-Learning is about. It allows for personalized, just-in-time, up-to-date, and user-centric educational activities. E-Learning has been most popular (and successful) in the corporate world, probably due to the culture of innovation and light bureaucracies, to the feasibility of having limited and clear educational objectives, and to quantifiable tradeoffs. It is also suitably used by consumers for informal skill formation and for professional training and upgrading in certain specializations. But corporate and consumer ELearning modalities have opened new paths, raised new ideas and generated new paradigms in the academic world. The sector that responded most to E-Learning applications is the tertiary level sector, worldwide. Examples are: Jones International University, University of Phoenix, KaplanCollege.com, The Open University of Hong Kong, The African Virtual University and the University of the Highlands and Islands. (More examples can be found in the January/February 2000 Issue of TechKnowLogia.) But other applications are picking up. For example, Online High Schools (Class.com, Keystone National High School) and Homework Help (Homeworkhelp.com, TopTutors.com and Tutor.com). The tools and methods that have been developed for ELearning for the workplace will increasingly play an equally crucial role in learning at all levels: • Collaborative environment tools allow students to connect with instructors anywhere. • Multimedia learning materials can be prepared by few experts and used by many more. • Network technologies allow students to learn anywhere, anytime. • Learning management systems facilitate the monitoring of the user's progress, the diagnosis of the learner's needs and problems, and the adjustment of structure and flow of content and of instructional style to effectively address learning objectives and needs. New Realities - New Tools Traditional training programs cannot adequately address these new realities; they are costly in terms of travel and lost time on the job, disruptive, slow to be modified, and incapable of responding to new needs and provisions in a timely fashion. ! 5 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org New Tools - New Possibilities With the accumulation of experience in E-Learning for the workplace and the advancements in networked technologies (broadband, wireless, etc.) it is hard to imagine the possibilities and manifestations of E-Learning at home, in the school, in community centers, and conceivably anywhere. But the expansion of E-Learning is not without problems. There are issues of bogus providers (see Jackson's article, "ELearning Buyer's Guide," in this Issue of TechknowLogia), certification, compatibility of "parts" and overall quality of materials. The most successful technologies are those that become unnoticed. We do not think anymore of the spectacle of printing every time we read a book, or of the miracle of the telephone every time we make a call. The ultimate success of E-Learning will be reached when we stop marveling about the E and apply our minds and emotions to the wonders of Learning. TechKnowLogia™ Published by Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. In editorial collaboration with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD ) EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Wadi D. Haddad, President, Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD: Jarl Bengtsson, Head, CERI, OEDC Claudio Castro, Pres., Advisory Bd., Faculdade Pitágoras Gajaraj Dhanarajan, President & CEO, The Commonwealth of Learning Dee Dickenson, CEO, New Horizons for Learning Alexandra Draxler, Director, Task force on Education for the Twenty-first Century (UNESCO) Pedro Paulo Poppovic, Secretary of Distance Education, Federal Ministry of Education, Brazil Nicholas Veliotes, President Emeritus, Association of American Publishers ************ In Memory of an E-Learner On March 18, 2001, Jim Johnson passed away. He was a member of TechKnowLogia's editorial advisory committee and a frequent contributor. Jim was a decent human being, a daring innovator, a motivator and genuine friend. He believed in the power ICT infrastructure but was equally committed to human learning. This Issue of TechKnowLogia is dedicated to his memory. Jim wrote in an article in September 1999, "In launching TechKnowLogia the editors are continuing to weave a very long and grand golden thread which holds together the civilizations of the world. This thread is the development of technologies and tools that have given us alphabets, language, writing, communication, preservation of human experiences, the sharing of knowledge, the search for new ideas and information, the ability to learn more, and to apply new facts to human endeavors." Every time we weave "the grand golden thread" we will remember Jim. ADVISORY EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: Joanne Capper, Sr. Education Specialist, World Bank Mary Fontaine, LearnLink, AED Kathleen Fulton, Independent Consultant Gregg Jackson, Assoc. Prof., George Washington Univ. Sonia Jurich, Consultant Frank Method, Consultant, former director UNESCO Washington Laurence Wolff, Sr. Consultant, IDB MANAGING EDITOR: Sandra Semaan GUEST EDITORIAL ADVISER: Joanne Capper, World Links for Development, World Bank GENERAL QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS FEEDBACK ON ARTICLES EDITORIAL MATTERS:
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[email protected] ADDRESS AND FAX Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. P.O. Box 3027 Oakton, VA 22124 U.S.A. Fax: 703-242-2279 This Issue is Co-Sponsored By: UNESCO, Academy for Educational Development (AED), Educational Testing Service (ETS) Wadi D. Haddad ! 6 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org E-Learning Growth and Promise For the Developing World By Joanne Capper World Links for Development, The World Bank The Status of E-Learning A growing number of organizations are now delivering training and education over the Internet, including colleges and university, corporations, military institutions, and even secondary schools. Just last month, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced that learning materials and syllabi for all courses were being put on the Internet for anyone to use. While access to the materials will not grant course credit with the institution, the faculty and administration determined that knowledge is for sharing and the Internet is the most efficient transmitter of knowledge ever available. The United States Army recently announced the launch of the Army U., a complete online university degree program available to all Army personnel. There are an estimated ten million courses now online, and the U.S. alone reports about 700 e-learning companies. Some companies or institutions offer online tutoring to students at specific grade levels, ranging from primary through university; others offer courses only for corporations; some offer courses for individuals in career development and/or personal development; and many offer training in various management, finance and IT-related skills. Increasingly, training and support for teachers is occurring online, and a number of institutions now offer either partial or complete secondary diplomas through e-learning. E-learning companies tend to fall into one of the following categories: • Providers of content – often corporate and IT training. Within this category are three subcategories: companies that develop content and sell to all who choose to enroll; those that aggregate content developed by others; and those that custom design content for the specific needs of an organization. Two organizations that evaluate online content are www.Lguide.com and www.BrandonHall.com. Providers of learning platforms. These companies provide a range of hard- and software technologies that facilitate the development and delivery of online courses, ranging from content creation to learner registration and course record keeping. Learning hubs or portal companies offer learners or organizations consolidated access to learning and training resources from multiple sources. • A complete package. Some e-learning companies are attempting to do all of the above. The Future of E-Learning Increased access to the Internet and greater bandwidth are both expected to increase the number of individuals moving into online learning. International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasts that there will be 320 million Internet users worldwide by the end of 2002, up from 97 million at the end of 1998. And broadband connectivity is expected to grow from approximately one million households in 2000 to almost 26 million by 2003 (Close et al. 2000). Broadband access increases the speed of Internet access and does away with the frustrating tedium of waiting for Web pages to download – a disincentive for the e-learning process. A study conducted by MediaOne found that households with broadband cable Internet connections averaged 22.5 hours of usage per week as compared with just 4.7 hours for households with dial-up connections. In the past year, four US investment firms have conducted detailed market analyses of what they refer to as the elearning sector, encouraging their clients to consider investing in e-learning companies. They project remarkable growth in online learning worldwide and have peppered the reports with dramatic statistics and claims. For example: • John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems argues that, "Education over the Internet is going to be so big it is going to make e-mail look like a rounding error." (Close, Humphreys and Ruttenbur, SunTrust Equitable Securities, March 2000) The online training market is expected to nearly double in size every year, reaching approximately $11.5 billion by 2003. (Urdan and Weggen, 2000) Venture capitalists see the growth potential of elearning. Over US$1 billion in private capital has been distributed to e-learning companies and more than US$302 million in public equity was raised in 1999 alone. (Close, Humphreys and Ruttenbur, SunTrust Equitable Securities, March 2000) Knowledge services – education and corporate learning for the new economy – is a $2-trillion industry globally. (Moe, 2000) By 2002, technology-based training will capture the majority of dollars for IT training, at 55% versus the • • • • • • ! 7 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org 45% share captured by instructor-led methods. (Moe, 2000) The Advantages of E-Learning There are a number of benefits to learning online that are unique to the medium: • Any time. A participant can access the learning program at any time that is convenient –not just during the specific 1-3-hour period that is set for a conventional course. The episodes can be quick snatches at odd times or long late-night sessions. Cross-time-zone communication, difficult to arrange in real time, is as easy as talking to someone across town when using the Internet. Any place. The participants do not have to meet. That means they can be anywhere. International sharing is feasible. Individuals can log on at work, home, the library, in a community learning center or from their hotel when traveling. Asynchronous interaction. Unlike face-to-face or telephone conversations, electronic mail does not require participants to respond immediately. As a result, interactions can be more succinct and to-the-point, discussion can stay more on-track, and people can get a chance to craft their responses. This can lead to more thoughtful and creative conversations. Group collaboration. Electronic messaging creates new opportunities for groups to work together, creating shared electronic conversations that can be thoughtful and more permanent than voice conversations. Sometimes aided by on-line moderators, these net seminars can be powerful for learning and problem-solving. New educational approaches. Many new options and learning strategies become economically feasible through online courses. For instance, the technology makes it feasible to utilize faculty anywhere in the world and to put together faculty teams that include master • teachers, researchers, scientists, and experienced professional developers. Online courses also can provide unique opportunities for teachers to share innovations in their own work with the immediate support of electronic groups and expert faculty. Integration of computers. The online learner has access to a computer, so computer applications can be used without excluding some participants. This means, for instance, that a mathematical model implemented in a spreadsheet can easily be incorporated into a lesson and downloaded so all participants can run, explore, and refine the model and then share their findings and improvements. • Does E-Learning Work? The individualized interactivity provided by an Internetconnected computer is believed to contribute significantly to the effectiveness of the online learning environment. And even without the Internet connectivity, computer-based learning programs have shown compelling results in both effectiveness and efficiency. While no machine can come close to the quality of instruction that can be provided by a good human teacher working with a student one-on-one, teachers typically have 25 to 35 students to deal with at one time – and often many times that number. A well-designed computer-based or online learning program can offer much more opportunity for individualized interactivity than is available in most classrooms. Studies have shown that individualized learning environments are considerably more interactive. For example, as the graph below shows, the average number of questions a teacher asks in one classroom hour is three, and the average number of questions asked by one student during one classroom hour is less than one. However, when learners are in a one-on-one tutoring environment, they typically ask up to 21 questions per hour and tutors ask and students answer an average of 117 questions per hour. • • • GRAPH 1: Number of Questions Asked and Answered in Classrooms vs. One-on-One TutoringOne Hour Session 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Classrm/Teacher asks Classrm/Student asks Tutor/Student asks Tutor asks/Student answ ers Source: Woolf and Regain (2000) ! 8 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org In a classroom, teachers are seldom able to spend more than a couple of minutes with any one student. Consequently, students must often practice new skills on their own. If the student does not understand the skill or concept, then he or she may be practicing problems or exercises incorrectly, or developing inaccurate conceptions. A 1990 review of computer-based instructional programs using interactive videodisc (a precursor to CD-ROMs and DVD) to train adults across a range of sectors revealed quite positive findings. Of the 21 studies that compared the computer-based training with traditional instruction, all showed equal or significantly superior performance of the computerbased students, and eight studies found that these students learned in less time with savings ranging from 10% to 60% and from 4.7 hours to 8 hours (Capper, 1990). Studies represented a range of subjects, topics, sectors and settings, including health (giving intra-muscular injections or CPR), college science, management training, sales training, military terrain analysis, troubleshooting and repair of large and costly equipment, use of a 35 mm camera, use of hazardous materials in the workplace, and smoking cessation. These studies and those listed in Tables 1 and 2 did not have the benefit of the increased interactivity and accesses to vast libraries of resources available on the Internet, and yet con- sistently showed superior performance both in terms of higher learning achievement and quicker mastery of learning objectives. The results are likely to be even more substantial given Internet access, for which research evidence is still quite limited. Tables 1 and 2 show achievement and time-tomastery comparisons between traditional computer-based instructional programs at various levels, and the more robust knowledge-based tutoring programs developed more recently, also called intelligent computer-assisted instruction (ICAI). Table 1 shows that on average, across levels of education and training, the 233 computer-assisted instructional (CAI) studies resulted in increased student performance from the 50th percentile to about the 65th percentile (Kulik, 1994, Fletcher, 1997). But the three studies of the more recentlydeveloped knowledge-based tutors resulted in increased learner performance from the 50th percentile to about the 84th percentile. Table 2 shows that this increased performance is accomplished in 55% less time than traditional instruction, compared with an average of 29% reduced time for CAI. In fact, contractors who bid to develop online training for the U. S. military bid on the promise of reducing time to mastery by 50%, and one study of Italian Air Force training reported an 80% time savings. Such time savings can result in substantial cost savings (Fletcher, in press). (%) Performance Increase Compared to Traditional Instruction 68 66 60 66 66 65 83 84 84 84 Table 1: Effect Sizes Achieved with CAI and Knowledge-Based Tutors Instructional Setting and Courseware Type Elementary School (CAI) Secondary School (CAI) Tertiary Education (CAI) Adult Education (CAI) Military Training (CAI Average Effect Size (CAI) Tertiary Education (Knowledge-Based Tutors) Military Training (Knowledge-Based Tutors) Secondary School (Knowledge-Based Tutors) Average Effect Size (Knowledge-Based Tutors) Number of Studies 28 42 101 24 38 233 1 1 1 3 Effect Size 0.47 0.42 0.26 0.42 0.40 0.39 0.97 1.02 1.00 1.00 Source: Woolf and Regain (2000) Table 2: Reduction in Time Needed to Reach Instructional Objectives for CAIand Knowledge-Based Tutors Instructional Setting and Courseware Type Military Training (CAI) Military Training (CAI) Tertiary Education (CAI) Adult Education (CAI) Average Time Reduction (CAI) Tertiary Education (Knowledge-Based Tutors) Number of Studies 23 N/A 17 15 55+ 3 Percent Time Reduced 28 30 34 24 29 55 Source: Woolf and Regain (2000) ! 9 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org ICAI programs are able to generate and solve problems, store and retrieve data, diagnose students’ misconceptions, select appropriate teaching strategies and carry on dialogues with students. They incorporate some very sophisticated conceptions about learning, and, for the most part, are designed by researchers who have devoted a great deal of time to the study of how people think, learn and solve problems, and thus offer useful standards and expectations for the use of computers as tools for learning Courses designed for online learning tend to be much more richly developed than are typical in-person courses where the instructor expects to be able to provide clarifications as questions arise. In fact, interviewed e-learning directors stress that it is important to completely reinvent how a course is taught when it is put online - that simply putting PowerPoint slides onto the Web will not result in highquality learning. They claim that the online courses they develop are highly robust, are specifically designed for Webbased learning, attempt to have all the learning resources embedded into the course, and include detailed tracking and reporting tools. Some e-learning companies also tailor material to their client’s needs and provide instant updates on the latest developments in their client’s field of interest. This means that the information disseminated to the individual learner is the latest available. In business, where knowledge is the greatest asset and biggest profit-maker, this is perhaps the ultimate expression in the Internet’s cost-effectiveness. Ruttenbur et al. (2000) report that “business models are continually (and quickly) evolving in this nascent industry” (p.37). What remains constant, though, is the need for better ways to provide an education at the lowest possible price. For a company or university to remain competitive in the field of Web-based education, it must adapt to both changes in technology and the requirements of its clients. Promise for Development Most developing countries have tremendous education and training needs. Few have even close to adequate numbers of IT professionals and most companies and government agencies will need to spend considerable investments in preparing their current staff to use information technology in their jobs. The overwhelming demand for secondary and tertiary education is an issue that will not go away and will have to be addressed in some way or other. Internet based learning offers the possibility of expanding that access. Upgrading of government staff, health workers and teachers is an ongoing process and the current training-of-trainers approaches often suffer from quality dissipation as the training works its way down the cascaded system. The plague of HIV/AIDS is exacerbating already existing shortages of trained teachers and other workers and in some countries, two people are being trained for every one that is needed to replace those lost to this ravage. Clearly we cannot expect that most individuals will be able to afford a computer at home. But a viable option is to establish a nationwide network of community learning centers stocked with computer laboratories with broadband access and staff who are trained to access online distance education opportunities and provide tutoring support to individuals and groups as they engage in learning activities. Such centers can be connected to schools, hospitals, clinics or other community service centers where community members congregate and the existing needs are strong. We don’t yet know what it will take to make such centers work, but with the compelling evidence in support of computer-based learning and the growing array of learning opportunities available through the Internet, it seems worth the effort to experiment, study, refine and disseminate knowledge about this new approach to education and training. References Capper, J. (1990) "Review of Research on Use of Interactive Videodisc for Training." Report prepared under contract with the Institute for Defense Analysis, Alexandria, VA. Close, R. Humphreys, R. and Ruttenbur, B. (2000) E-Learning & Knowledge Technology: Technology and the Internet Are Changing The Way We Learn, Sun Trust Equitable Securities. (http://www.masie.com) Fletcher, J. D. (1997) "What Have We Learned about ComputerBased Instruction in Military Training?" In R. J. Seidel and P. R. Chatelier (Eds.), Virtual Reality, Training’s Future? New York, NY: Plenum Publishing, pp. 169-177. Fletcher, J. D. (In press) "Evidence for Learning from TechnologyAssisted Instruction." In H. F. O'Neil Jr. and R. Perez (Eds.) Technology Applications in Education: A Learning View. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Moe, M. (2000) The Knowledge Web: People Power – Fuel for the New Economy. Merrill Lynch. Ruttenbur, B., Spickler, G. and Lurie, S. (2000) E-Learning: The Engine of the Knowledge Economy, Morgan Keegan & Co., Inc. Urdan, T. and Weggen, C. (2000) Corporate E-Learning: Exploring a New Frontier. Hambrecht & Co. Woolf, B. and Regain, W. (2000) "Knowledge-based Training Systems and the Engineering of Instruction." In Tobias, S. and Fletcher, D. (Eds.), Training and Retraining: A Handbook for Business, Industry, Government and the Military. New York: Macmillan. ! 10 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org What Isn’t E-Learning? Cher Ping Lim, Ph.D. National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
[email protected] Corporate Motivation for E-Learning The Pentium speed of technological development has brought about the short shelf life of information in the market place. To compete in such a fast-changing world, corporations need employees who know how to seek out new but relevant information, think critically and show initiatives to meet up with challenges. Lifelong learning is no longer a buzzword for corporations, but rather, a basic necessity for survival in the market place. On-going corporate development then, becomes one of the most important strategies to sustain growth in corporations. However, the rate at which knowledge becomes irrelevant and the far-flung globalized workforce scattered around the world impose a huge financial drag on corporations engaged in corporate development. Over the last few years, e-learning in corporate training and development has been perceived to be what the relic of the True Cross was in the Age of Faith: emblems of salvation. It is believed that this Internet- supported learning innovation allows workers to learn anywhere and anytime, promotes active and independent learning, and supports communication between experts and novices. The anywhere-anytime nature of e-learning generates substantial cost savings to corporations. The monetary costs of e-learning are much lower than traditional classroom training due to the absence of transportation, accommodation and other miscellaneous costs. More importantly, the opportunity costs of e-learning are much lower: employees learn on-site, on-the-job, rather than away from the job in some other training sites. Therefore, the primary motivations for e-learning in corporate development are cost-effectiveness and a well-trained workforce that gives the corporation a superior competitive advantage. learning, do be reminded that e-learning is NOT all about hardware, software, boxes and wires. For decades, educators, administrators and researchers have been lured into the fantasy that radio, television and videotapes are going to take over the human instructor. In 1922, Thomas Edison predicted that motion picture was likely to supplant the use of textbooks. As we now know, such optimistic predictions were shattered by subsequent media comparison studies that failed to prove that any one medium is superior to another. It depended on the context of how the media were used. Therefore, e-learning does not exist in isolation; it is interwoven with the rest of the media and human participants in the corporate environment. The success of e-learning in a corporation depends on the way e-learning is situated within that environment. If nothing significant changes in that environment save the introduction of elearning, few, if any, import effects can be expected. Elearning then, must be about the processes, NOT just the products. Not About Information Even if e-learning is considered as a process, it is easy and inaccurate to confine one’s perception of e-learning to giving employees greater access to more up-to-themillisecond information, faster and more conveniently. Elearning is NOT about disseminating information. Employees in the 21st century are already bombarded with too much information. With so much information available, corporations need people who can synthesize meaning from large bodies of diverse knowledge. Craig (1996, 2) warns, “information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of each other, and we need them all.” Elearning then, must be about making possible successful knowledge management to leverage upon the intellectual capital of the entire corporation. Not About Technology Before you become entranced with the gorgeous hardware and mesmerizing interactive multimedia displays of e- ! 11 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Four E-Learning Myths 1. E-learning technology; is all all about about with them their own set of experiences and expertise that contribute to the community’s repertoire of knowledge. Such interactions promote the creation of lifelong learners who collaborate with colleagues and other stakeholders within the e-learning context and across the globe to build and share knowledge. These interactions may be synchronous or asynchronous where employees and their learning communities can assemble virtually, across time and space, to engage in and extend the powerful dialogue of learning. E-learning then, must be about providing the interactions among the employees and their communities to develop the competitive advantage of the corporation. 2. E-learning is information; 3. E-learning is all about webbased learning; and 4. E-learning is all about interactions between computer and learner. the the Conclusion In this article, I have dismissed four myths about elearning: Not About the Web Much too often, e-learning courses have been attempting to replace traditional learning and teaching media without much thought to their underlying pedagogical principles. For example, from textbooks to e-books, or from overhead transparencies to PowerPoint slides. The learning medium may have changed, but the methods employed in using these new innovations remain constant. Human beings have a tendency to maintain order and control in their lives that many will unconsciously alter innovations to fit into the existing ways of doing things. Therefore, e-learning is NOT just about web-based learning. Without considering the strengths and weaknesses of each medium, e-learning courses may adversely affect the learning experiences of the course participants. E-learning then, must be about harnessing the strengths and addressing the weaknesses of web-based learning to create a conducive learning environment. 1. 2. 3. 4. E-learning is all about technology; E-learning is all about information; E-learning is all about web-based learning; and E-learning is all about the interactions between the computer and learner. By doing so, I have, indirectly, established what e-learning must be about, and hence, how corporations can evaluate e-learning courses by asking these questions: • • • • Does the course emphasize on both processes and products? Does the course focus on knowledge management rather than information provision? Does the course harness the strengths and address the weaknesses of web-based learning? Does the course provide interactions among the learners and their communities? Not About Computers Interaction with Many e-learning courses have also over-emphasized the interactions between the computer and the learner. These interactivities are often seen as control over pace, choice of activities and sequences, and may not necessarily bring about learning. The learning of an individual is the outcome of the interactions with his/her community. This community consists of his/her colleagues, employers, clients, partners and other industrial stakeholders. The interactions with the community enable newcomers to become old-timers. However, the newcomers also bring E-learning is a double-edged sword; it can be used either to enhance the corporations’ competitive advantages or to amplify their disadvantages. E-learning can foster a learning community of ‘knowledge workers,’ or it can cause abstraction and individualism among employees. Therefore, embedded within the opportunities of elearning, is the responsibility to design a corporate environment with the goal of developing a learning community of ‘knowledge workers.’ Reference Craig, W. (1996). New technologies mean new goals. Learners Together, 4, 1, pp.1-3. ! 12 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org The Role of E-Learning In Training and Development Kurt D. Moses, Vice President Academy for Educational Development Costly but Valuable Training and constant human development has become a priority for a majority of firms operating in modern and increasingly global economies, and for countries searching for development approaches. In the United States alone, with a GDP for 1999 of $9.3 trillion, estimates of the percentage of funds spent on education and training vary from $800 billion to $1.0 trillion per year—just under 9% to just under 11% of GDP across all sectors within the economy. In selected sectors (such as tertiary education—a $258 billion per year enterprise in itself) the expenditures for training and continuing education of employees has been estimated at over $200 billion per year. Other developed economies are spending on average 4.5% of GDP directly on education. One of the biggest factors in the variability of estimates for training and education is whether the income and living expenses of those being trained is factored in as a cost. For example, 90% of all corporate and government training in the U.S. occurs on paid time. The cost of a senior executive attending training, at a location different from his/her normal workplace, includes not only the direct outlay for the training activity (speakers, computers, rental site, other costs) but also the cost of attendance. This covers the trainee's salary, transportation costs, living expenses, out-of-pocket costs and, in some cases, business that was not conducted or not accomplished, because the person was off being trained. In many instances—particularly for international training— the cost of attendance far exceeds the direct cost of training. The higher the salaries of persons involved, the more precious their time is, and the more the training costs a firm. For most educational enterprises, the effective cost of a student’s time is zero. The institution does not pay students a salary, nor, in most cases, does it cover their living expenses. Hence, formal education seems to be a much less expensive enterprise than training for those who are employed. For an employer who is effectively bearing the full cost of training—direct outlay plus the cost of the employee—training is very expensive. And yet, most modern firms in modern economies continue to place extremely high priority on training. Several factors are driving this type of priority setting: 1. Modern economies tend to move from High Volume activities to High Value activities—high value activi2. 3. ties usually involve higher skilled individuals. Countries and economies seeking to advance need a reasonable mix of high value items to export or produce. 1 Speed and agility are key to maintaining high value—this requires communication and quick understanding—meaning additional training and people who know how to learn. Modern firms need a web of relationships to produce what they do—as an example, the modern automobile, sold in the U.S., may have parts from 25 or 30 countries, all brought together to create one automobile. In emerging economies, such webs of relationship are also important, because the various factors of production are now very distributed. A classic example is flowers produced in Kenya for sales in Amsterdam. The entire activity, including transportation is arranged via the Internet. New Needs In addition, the focus on Web and Internet based ways of operating firms has created a new set of needs. Two innovations (used in both the service and the product economy) have driven much of the recent dialogue on these matters: 1. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) involves integrating the “back office” of firms so that one can provide ordered goods rapidly and accomplish all the needed inventory, distribution, quality control, financial, and status updating easily and rapidly. ERP involves reengineering the normally separate functions within enterprises (including educational institutions) so that services and goods are produced more consistently and rapidly. 2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) involves recording all interactions with a customer/client in order to note past buying patterns, anticipate new purchases or interests, determine changes in lifestyles, and respond to preferences in ordering. CRM is becoming increasingly powerful as multiple firms attempt to become the preferred supplier of goods and services—not only to individuals but to other businesses as well. Attention to this level of service and speed requires an upgraded workforce—which in the past may have been used to ! 13 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org do one job or several related jobs on a repetitive, moderately changing basis. In more modern economies, change becomes much more the theme of an economic operation. It would then come as no surprise that the key functions that allow firms to operate in the above manner also need to change. Training in a modern economy needs to respond in the following ways: 1. 2. 3. Highly focussed on needed skills in the context of the work enterprise. Provided at the right time in the cycle of work and travel for an employee. Structured to respond to personnel who begin at different points in the learning cycle—for example, some people have more mathematics than others, some need more drill and practice to understand an issue, others need more writing practice. Easily modified and quickly mounted—training which can be reconfigured and delivered rapidly. Some of the features of E-Learning—the organization and technology for which are still undergoing rapid change and development—have begun to emerge: ♦ ♦ We must continue to focus on the outcome of learning— what is it that must be known to prepare for or perform key functions? Different learning outcomes require different skills and ways of acquiring those skills (such as the obvious challenge of teaching laboratory skills remotely). Corporations may value convenience (instruction at the desktop) much more than face to face interactivity—undergraduate education institutions do just the opposite. Humans require interaction in order to learn well. Interaction is a human enterprise that technology may only partially be able to support. Younger learners may not be the best candidates for a lot of E-Learning, even though they may conquer the technology faster than adults may. There are issues of socialization, teamwork, and physical presence, which have become a part of every culture’s education process. Training, the imparting of skills, and commercial judgement for a mature learner may, however, be very appropriate for E-Learning. Learning styles differ by culture and the culture that most advances E-Learning will also tend to dominate the style (just as has happened traditionally). The mass customization of learning will become increasingly important as more and more countries wish to know the basic skills that others share, but also wish to alter and make it their own. We still need to certify the outcome in some fashion, either through the pedigree of the sponsoring institution (becoming less likely), through certification by respected persons (connections still count), or through various “objective” tests which are independently certified. ♦ ♦ 4. Advantages of E-Learning Traditional training and education, delivered most often in a face to face mode, has had trouble adjusting to the above pressures. While face to face training can be rapidly modified (with good instructors) such training may have a limited audience or access, and cost pressures can become intense, particularly for senior personnel. E-Learning and E-Training offers an opportunity to respond more cost effectively to the pressures noted above. In most instances, as long as ELearning can provide equivalent or better outcomes (retention of knowledge, demonstrably better skills, or higher levels of problem solving) at the same or lower cost than traditional training, then the convenience of E-Learning and its ability to reach a wider audience will often win out. As will be noted in subsequent articles, there have been a wide variety of approaches to E-Learning—many of which are in fact, multi-mode—using a variety of means to carry the instruction and a variety of means to create the necessary “learning experience.” The best of these techniques, borrowing heavily from A.W. (Tony) Bates’ excellent taxonomy for Open Learning is:2 1. 2. Audience appropriate—in terms of access and level; Cost effective for the economies in which it is operating (perhaps higher cost in richer economies, lower cost in less well to do environments); Teaching and learning appropriate—suits the styles of the learner; Interactive and user friendly; Organizationally appropriate; New enough to generate interest and enthusiasm; and Capable of being speedily altered and rapidly delivered. ♦ ♦ ♦ E-Learning offers a powerful alternative to a traditional form of learning that has worked for many centuries. Perhaps as importantly, it has forced us to rethink our working environments, what we need to learn, why we need that learning, and how we go about measuring success. In some ways, that process may be as important as the new form of learning implementation. Just as changes in commerce have forced corporations to evaluate how they convey and add to their core capabilities to produce goods and services, so ELearning now offers a chance to rethink learning in many other sectors of society. 1 2 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Robert Reich, The Work of Nations (1992) A.W. (Tony) Bates, Technology, Open Learning & Distance Education (1995) ! 14 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org HOW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CAN HELP DEVELOPMENT: Opportunities and Obstacles By Mary Fontaine1 THE BUSINESS OF DEVELOPMENT IS…BUSINESS? Lately there seems to be more buzz about business than is usual in development circles, where the notion of trade not aid is being bandied about. While the two need not be mutually exclusive, the extent to which the idea gains ground could cause a shift in development programming and funding priorities that, in fact, would not be altogether surprising. Recent sea changes in the global economy suggest that the ability of developing countries to succeed economically will depend increasingly on their ability to participate in electronic commerce. E-commerce involves conducting business over the Internet. It includes exchanging products or services through business-to-business transactions (B2B), businessto-consumer transactions (B2C), consumer-to-consumer transactions (C2C), and transactions between public agencies and both private- and voluntary-sector consumers and constituents. Broadly speaking, a new paradigm is emerging in which participation in the global economy is becoming a fundamental component of socio-economic development. Within this paradigm: ! ! ! time. Geography has been virtually eliminated as a determinant of participation in an activity, rendering almost irrelevant where one is in the world. Likewise, time has been compressed, making speed a more crucial condition of competitiveness than ever before. The time needed to accomplish the same tasks just a few short years ago has been greatly reduced. Indeed, an Internet year is considered to be just six months long. The Internet has changed even the way divisions between the world are understood, with some now viewing nations not in terms of geography but velocity, referring to societies as “fast” or “slow.” Because of the Internet, business has been fundamentally transformed. Ten years ago, e-commerce did not even exist. Yet today there is increasingly only one economy and one marketplace, all connected, and more transactions take place online every day. While being a player in the global economy does not guarantee success, the consequences of not playing could be dire indeed. And with the speed at which it is all changing, catching up is becoming more difficult than ever before. The worst case scenario is that the digital divide will grow, economic inequality will increase both within and between countries, entrepreneurs not plugged into the global network will be unable to reach markets, and nations not online will fail to attract international investment, leaving regions with large populations facing an economic crisis of unparalleled proportions. Through the Internet, the business community forms strategic alliances, networks, and chains that work together online, and it is neither cost-effective nor efficient in terms of time to do business with groups that are out of the loop. Given the role of multinational corporations today, with big business becoming more and more influential in setting agendas and determining priorities at the international, national, and even local levels, it seems almost impossible for countries not sufficiently connected to advance or progress socially or economically. Just as the ability of companies to compete is increasingly dependent on connectivity, it seems that so, too, is the ability of nations to develop. socio-economic development depends increasingly on ecommerce; e-commerce depends on easy access to information technology (IT); and access to IT depends on an appropriate infrastructure, regulatory environment, and labor pool. This article briefly explains the connection between IT and development, describes some of the “e-opportunities” and entry points open to developing countries, and identifies some of the conditions that must be in place for participation. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR DEVELOPMENT? The Internet has spread faster and further and has transformed more aspects of life more rapidly than any phenomenon in the history of the world. Not only has it changed how millions of people live, work, and play, but in less than ten years it has altered even the universal notions of space and ! 15 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org In addition to the negative prospects of not participating in ecommerce, there are plenty of positive reasons for doing so. Not only are technology costs falling, but also the potential profitability of online business is growing. Attractive opportunities exist for developing countries to assume culturally appropriate and economically advantageous roles within the networks and alliances that are operating. Moreover, due to rapid advances in infrastructure options, developing countries need not progress through all of the same technological stages that other nations have but can jump right to the fiber, satellite, wireless, or broadband options that are now available. Finally, perhaps the best news of all is that the Internet is inherently inclusive, offering abundant entry points for newcomers. WHAT KINDS OF “E-OPPORTUNITIES” ARE AVAILABLE? The most obvious benefit of e-commerce for people in developing countries is that, as consumers, they can find lower priced goods and services. But the most exciting opportunities growing out of the electronic business network are for producers. Below are some examples. Using global communication networks, companies are locating different parts of the production and distribution process in different countries, and all parts are taking place on multiple continents simultaneously. Participating in the “global factory chain” is possible for anyone anywhere who can acquire the necessary skills and access the needed equipment. Entrepreneurs in developing countries need only find their niche and join in. Business-to-business ecommerce can reduce the isolation of small and local entrepreneurs by connecting them to a global business community with similar interests. By joining global value chains, transaction costs can be decreased and access to global markets increased. Throughout the developing world, companies offering “informatics” services are launching, offering cost-effective services ranging from web site hosting to multimedia production to database design. Have a look at the Himalnet web site at http://www.himalnet.com for an example from Nepal. Some countries have established specially designed zones or large office parks that participate in the information economy. In these zones, individuals highly trained in computer systems and software applications work on a wide variety of projects with companies around the world. State-of-the-art hardware and high-speed satellite links are provided to enable quality workmanship and facilitate competitive bidding for contracts. A variation on the theme is the creation of informatics parks designed to encourage industries to locate offices, plants, and workers in-country, which brings in valuable hard currency capital and international investment. Ex- amples include the Mauritius “Technology Diffusion Scheme” and the “Multimedia Super Corridor” project in Malaysia. E-commerce enables small entrepreneurs to sell their products and services in the global bazaar directly through a web site or indirectly through arrangements with foreign distributors. Even local arts and crafts can reach global markets, as demonstrated by the classic PEOPLink (http://www.peoplink.org) example. PEOPLink is a nonprofit marketplace whose web site serves as a virtual catalog where the sale of handmade goods, such as sculptures, baskets, musical instruments, and paintings, benefit grassroots artisans and their communities. A wide variety of ancillary economic activities accompany the growth of e-commerce and the use of IT, both to support the industry and take advantage of IT applications. Some examples include: ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Software development, production, and sales Computer repair and installation Word processing, typesetting, and data entry Training in computer use and software applications Establishing telecenters, Internet cafes, and business/communication centers IT careers in management, administration, and technical support Providing Internet services Graphic design, digital imaging, and desktop publishing Web site creation and multimedia authoring Web site hosting Such activities provide immediate opportunities for new business development, employment creation, and increased income generation. When IT-based activities launch in a community, the ancillary opportunities quickly become available not only in urban centers but also in secondary cities and even rural areas, offering economic development opportunities to anyone able to seize them, including minority and disadvantaged populations that can develop the skills needed for participation. Adding value to information-based goods and services, or creating new information products, is increasingly profitable. Information—which is virtually anything that can be digitized—has become a commodity, and producing it, while costly, can be highly lucrative. There is a great deal of interest in content from developing countries that is created for global audiences. Currently, the vast majority of information available on the Internet and in multimedia formats comes from the US and other “digital” countries, and there is a growing demand for information from others, especially products designed to document the richness and diversity of cultures around the world. According to the 1999 African ! 16 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org The Internet has changed even the way divisions between the world are understood, with some now viewing nations not in terms of geography but velocity, referring to societies as “fast” or “slow.” hardware accessories, and software must be available, and conscious, specific, and bold steps must be taken not only to permit but promote access. The following would help: ! ! ! ! reduce the cost of IT to the end user; remove import duties and sales tax on IT; offer tax deductions to offset costs; provide soft loans for IT acquisition by businesses, schools, NGOs, individuals—indeed all consumers; and support the establishment of public access points, such as telecenters, especially in secondary cities, towns, and rural areas.2 Development Forum (ADF), developing countries can use their expertise in a wide variety of knowledge domains to create content that would be valuable globally. Because this knowledge has not been codified and is largely regional in application, its perceived value has been undermined. In Africa, for example, ecology, wildlife behavior, and traditional healing methods represent areas of interest to a worldwide audience. This type of content could have an indirect benefit of promoting African culture, which also could contribute to tourism. The ADF also suggests that, when producing knowledge products, Africans should target areas of importance to national economies, such as agriculture, rural development, monitoring of water and land resources, food transportation and storage, crop-diseases control, and preservation and export of natural resources. For more information and ideas, see the ADF documents at: http://www.bellanet.org/partners/aisi/adf99docs/docs.htm Gaining entry to global business chains can be achieved by participating in the growing number of electronic networks and virtual communities of interest that are operating online. Joining listservs, consulting online bulletin boards, even visiting chat rooms can open doors leading to opportunities in research, education, software development—virtually any field—and consulting online lists of contracts to let and employment searches can lead to interesting international collaborations. WHAT CONDITIONS MUST BE IN PLACE FOR IT-FACILITATED DEVELOPMENT? Half the world’s population still has never made a telephone call. There is no question that IT can help hasten the development process, both economic and otherwise. But certain critical conditions that are by no means easy to achieve must be in place for it to work. First, there must be easy, affordable, and unfettered access to information technology itself. Computers, peripherals, Second, telecommunications policies must be liberalized. Given the massive and expensive investment needed, governments cannot monopolize IT because they need largescale private investment. Therefore, the doors to private sector involvement, even ownership, must be opened. Government monopoly of the telecommunications industry, in which antiquated and non-market driven PTTs (Post, Telephone, and Telegraph administrations) keep old policies in place to safeguard one of their few consistent and highly profitable revenue streams: the local and international telephone systems they manage. Lacking incentives to modernize, they continue to charge high prices under the existing system and disallow competition that might jeopardize their revenues by replacing the traditional system with a digital network. The results are evident: Antiquated telephone networks geared mostly toward voice applications at the 64k bandwidth level, making connectivity to data systems, which require broadband networks, a near impossibility. The developing world is starving for additional bandwidth, but it cannot be provided with the existing analog telephony infrastructure. If PTTs would use their profits to update their networks instead of funneling the funds elsewhere—perhaps back into the same system causing the problem—the technology gap could be mitigated, developing countries could literally “connect” to the digital side of the world, and activities that bring exciting new applications to development could be implemented with greater effectiveness. Limited bandwidth is perhaps the greatest challenge to Internet use in many developing countries, where it causes inconsistent, unreliable, expensive, and maddeningly slow connections. In some areas, where access to the Internet has received an enthusiastic reception from people from all walks of life, their efforts to access information online are frustrated by busy signals, disconnections in the midst of work, and charges for time spent waiting for web pages to download. In too many places, one needs to go online at 4:00 a.m. to get connected. A country’s regulatory policies can either stimulate IT participation and attract investment, or they can restrict them. ! 17 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Policies that limit free Internet access work against the growth of e-commerce. Governments should resist the temptation to control IT media. For one thing, it really is not possible in the long term anyway, and in the meantime, it will diminish development returns. Developing an IT economy also requires national-level support for the business community, including: ! ! ! ! need attention. Fortunately, there are valuable lessons about what works and what does not from the experiences of those already in the thick of this business that can be drawn on for guidance. Of course, there is more. Ultimately, atmospheric conditions matter, too, such as political stability, a safe financial system, an openness to change, and a climate conducive to innovation. THE BOTTOM LINE The impact of the Internet in a mere ten years is no less than amazing. One can only wonder what it might do in the next decade. For developing countries, it presents an opportunity to accelerate development almost beyond one’s wildest dreams. As developing countries consider their strategies for the future, and as those providing development assistance plan their programs and determine their funding priorities, let us hope that they will recognize this potential and pursue it with vigor. credit and financing for start-ups; policies that stimulate new business development; strategies to bring connectivity to secondary cities and rural areas; and business incubators for disadvantaged communities. Finally, a massive commitment to improving the quality of education, training, and lifelong learning opportunities, accompanied by an increased focus on math, science, technology, business, and trade in education systems, is essential for preparing people to work in IT fields. A technologically sophisticated work force is a sine qua non for IT-based development. Privacy, security, electronic payments, intellectual property, and other e-commerce related issues also would REFERENCES Armstrong, C. Michael, “The Internet and E-Commerce,” Internet Policy Institute, March 2000 (http://www.internetpolicy.org/briefing/3_00.html) Barksdale, Jim, “Briefing the President: What the Next President of the United States Needs To Know About the Internet and its Transformative Impact on Society,” Internet Policy Institute, November 9, 1999 (http://www.internetpolicy.org/briefing/index.htm) Blinder, Alan S., “The Internet and the New Economy,” Internet Policy Institute, January 2000 (http://www.internetpolicy.org/briefing/1_00.html) Kahn, Robert E. and Cerf, Vinton G., “What is the Internet (And What Makes It Work),” Internet Policy Institute, December 1999 (http://www8.techmall.com/techdocs/TS991227-7.html) Mary Fontaine is the Information Dissemination Specialist with LearnLink, a USAID-funded Global Communications and Learning Systems Project, where she is responsible for describing IT applications and disseminating insights and lessons from IT-supported development activities worldwide. 2 1 For more information, go to http://www.aed.org/learnlink. Also, visit TechKnowLogia's archive and search for keyword “Telecenter.” ! 18 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org TechKnowNews India and Brazil Are Bringing Computers to the Masses With the Digital Divide an ever present and continuously enlarging threat, countries are diligently coming up with solutions to bring technology to the masses. Two examples of this are India, with the Simputer and Brazil with what is being dubbed as the Volkscomputer – the peoples’ computer. Conceived in 1998 to address the need for a low-cost access device that will bring local-language IT to the masses, the Simputer project has finally reached its goal. As of this writing, the Simputer was scheduled to be launched late April 2001. What is it you ask? Simply put, the Simputer is an Internet device that will have the potential to help even non-literate users to check the Web, and get access to information, which until now has been impossible. The device, named the Simple Inexpensive Multilingual People's Computer, uses a touch screen interface, but allows for an external keyboard through a USB interface, for those who require data entry capability. It is built around Intel's StrongARM CPU, and is based on the Linux operating system, with 16MB of flash memory, a monochrome liquid crystal display (LCD), and a touch-panel for pen-based computing. One main attraction is, other than it will be sold for about US$200 to the home user, you don’t have to know English to access the Simputer, nor do you have to be literate. Currently, the device supports Hindi, Kannada, and English. And to help fight illiteracy, the Simputer reads out text in these same languages. An important feature of the device is the smart card reader/writer. This feature will help increase the functionality of the Simputer and provide more value-added services. Some applications for which the Simputer can be used include: micro-banking, dissemination of agricultural information, Internet access, education, and census data collection. The Simputer Trust, the non-profit entity that developed this device, will license the device for manufacture by commercial companies. Brazil’s version of the Simputer is the Volkscomputer. Very similar in configuration, the machine will have a 500megahertz processor, 64 megabytes of main memory and 16 MB more on a flash chip that substitutes for a hard drive. There's a 56 kbps modem and the software is Linux-based and, therefore, free. Because the machine is modular, schools can link a series up to a regular PC that would act as a server. Volkscomputer was created by the Federal University of Minas Gerais as a result of a commission last year by the Brazilian federal government. Still in its prototype stages, Brazil hopes to manufacture the device for US$600 and sell it to individuals on an installment plan for as little as $15 per month. In addition, installing the Volkscomputer in schools will give Internet access to 7 million students. Brazil is currently looking for a local manufacturer to begin production of the device. Sources and for more information, visit: http://www.simputer.org, http://www.bytesforall.org, and http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/082944.htm Legislation Introduced in USA To Encourage IT Training in the Workplace Legislation that is said to promote technology instruction in the workplace was re-introduced by a group of Senators in late April. It was introduced last year, but did not receive strong support. Legislators say the bill currently has bipartisan support and is being strongly lobbied for by industry and expect that the bill will most likely pass this time. Known as the Technology Education and Training Act, the bill would provide businesses with US$1500 tax credit per employee for information technology training. This is expected to cover about one quarter of the total cost of training. In addition, a second part of the bill would make people enrolled in non-degree information technology ! 19 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org training programs eligible for scholarship tax credits, now available only to students enrolled in two- and four-year colleges. While the bill has its supporters, critics say that a tax exemption that goes directly to an employee’s income would be more desirable. If passed, the bill will cost the US Government $700 million over 5 years. Source: The Chronicle for Higher Education http://www.chronicle.com/free/2001/04/2001042502t.htm models. The world language students translate the text. Mentor teachers monitor the process and guide the development of the models. Collegiate level content experts review the models for accuracy. The head of the project is Mr. Jim Rusconi, who teaches at Coyle and Cassidy High School. Mr. Rusconi was invited to Italy to receive the $2700 award, which was given to the school. The Pirelli INTERNETional award was created by Pirelli, the Italian multinational company that manufactures tires and cables, and systems for telecommunications and energy transmission. The award is carried out entirely on the Internet and is given to the multimedia work that best spreads science culture. The website http://www.pirelliaward.com/english provides all the details of the award and who is eligible for consideration. Sources and for more information, visit: http://www.virtualcell.com, http://www.pirelliaward.com/english, and http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,42759,00.html Latin America’s Widest Reaching E-Learning Solution is Launched On April 25, 2001, VCampus and UOL Inc., SA announced the launch of UOL-Argentina’s e-learning campus. VCampus is the leading provider of end-to-end e-learning solutions, headquartered in Virginia, USA, and UOL is Latin America’s largest Internet portal. Together, this partnership will make e-learning available to 1 million UOL users in Argentina, and is the first step to reaching the 17 million UOL users throughout Latin America and the world. VCampus will be the exclusive e-learning solutions provider to UOL-Argentina for a period of three years. Argentineans now have immediate access to 150 information technology and telecommunications courses, accessible on: http://www.UOL.com.ar/e-ducacion/vcampus. Source and for more information, visit: http://www.individual.com (search for Vcampus) University Libraries In Developing Countries Gaining Greater Access To Academic Journals. As reported by EdInvest, the education investment information facility at the World Bank: “A cooperative project among four universities in northern Europe and ten universities in East Africa will enable African scholars to have wide access to academic journals for the first time. The project -- known as the Supply of Academic Publications to and from Universities in Developing Countries, or SAP -- is set to begin in July 2001 (Source: Chronicle of Higher Education). A separate initiative is being undertaken by the Association of Information Systems (AIS) which has announced that all university libraries in middle and low-income countries will be granted free subscriptions to the Communications of AIS (http://cais.aisnet.org/) and the Journal of AIS (http://jais.aisnet.org/). These libraries should contact Jennifer Davis at
[email protected] of the AIS Office.” Virtual Cell Site Wins “INTERNET”ional Award Pirelli The Virtual Cell site won the Pirelli INTERNETional Award 2000 given to a multimedia work that best spreads science culture. VirtualCell.com is a multidisciplinary collaboration between Science, Computer Graphics, and World Language Classes at Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taunton, Massachusetts. The students in advanced science classes design models and create the written text that will accompany the models on the web. The 3D computer graphics students take these specifications and develop the ! 20 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org The Rio Salado Experience Partnerships: An Essential Ingredient for E-Learning in the Workforce By Dr. Linda M. Thor* President, Rio Salado College, Tempe, Arizona, USA Just three or four years ago, most of us had never heard of “e-tailing and e-commerce and e-learning.” Now, with the New Economy and widespread Internet availability, we have a whole new vocabulary, with terms like “dot.coms” and “cookies” – that is, the non-edible variety. Who is behind the e-revolution? Certainly some of the more successful Internet ventures have originated within the world of higher education. This explosive growth in e-learning has been fueled by demands from adult learners who have time constraints. In addition, corporate education and training have skyrocketed as many CEO’s realize they need knowledge workers. According to Merrill Lynch, 710,000 U.S. college students took an online course in 1998. By next year, that number will more than triple to 2.2 million. In 1998, just 48% of traditional two and four-year institutions offered online courses. Two years later that figure increased significantly to 70%. And it is expected to become 84% by next year, prompting someone to label this the “bricks to clicks movement.” $217 billion per year to operate. To meet the full potential demand by the year 2010, a campus would have to be opened every eight days.” The Rio Salado College Model Rio Salado College is a publicly-funded institution that was established in the metropolitan Phoenix market in 1978 as an educational change agent. At the time it was one of only seven colleges in the country without the bricks and mortar approach to conducting higher education. Rio is the third largest of the 10 colleges in the Maricopa Community College District, the largest such district in the U.S. We serve nearly 50,000 students annually through customized, unique programs and partnerships, accelerated formats and distance learning. The Advantages of E-Learning The advantages of e-learning become clear when you consider that although there are 15 million U.S. students enrolled in traditional higher education degree programs, there are actually 75 million adult learners who are enrolled in workforce training and other forms of lifelong learning. This increase in lifelong learners is problematic in terms of serving their needs through traditional means. Educational futurist Michael Dolence made these comments in his 1995 book, Transforming Higher Education: “Using our existing educational model, the number of learners would require an additional 672 campuses with an enrollment of 30,000 each. At an estimate of $350 million each, the 672 campuses would cost $235 billion to build and an additional As you can imagine, when you don’t have a campus, you tend to get rather creative about delivery formats. From the start, distance learning has been closely associated with Rio Salado. It has proven to be one of the biggest growth areas of our college. This academic year we will have more than ! 21 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org 25,000 duplicated distance learning enrollments in 300 individual courses. Almost all of our distance learning courses can be taken by anyone, anytime and anyplace. These courses are offered in multiple delivery formats, including the Internet and CD-ROM; mixed media, such as audio and video cassettes; and print-based materials. By far, the most popular delivery format at Rio Salado is the Internet. Three out of every four of our distance learning students are enrolled in at least one Internet class. One of the outstanding features of distance learning at Rio Salado is that students can begin most of these courses every two weeks, rather than waiting for a new semester to begin. That’s 26 different start dates a year! We never cancel a course because registration doesn’t meet some predetermined number. Neither do we close a course because it is full; we simply open another section. To make sure every new distance learning student transitions well, we offer “successful starts.” This program walks them through everything they need to know to survive the first two weeks of class. A similar program helps our newest faculty members learn the strategies they need for distance learning. But there is more. In 1996, the entire college was placed online. Since then students can receive everything they need with the click of a mouse. That includes academic and career advising, counseling, tutoring, HelpDesk support, textbooks, even financial aid. These Generation X students have been raised to expect convenience and flexibility. They don’t want to waste their time standing in line, so at Rio Salado we have eliminated lines. Instead students have six options for registration: online, fax, phone, mail, computer-assisted registration by touchtone phone, and traditional in-person. Likewise, these same students won’t accept e-learning courses that are merely the transfer of some professor’s old and yellowing notes to the screen. Instead, they have come to expect dynamic presentations such as they find in Rio Salado’s human anatomy and physiology courses, which feature 360 degree rotating models of every major bone and organ. The Rio Salado E-Learning Student Let’s focus specifically on the traits of Rio Salado’s elearning students. About two out of three of them are female, many of them are single, and the average age is 31 years. That makes them a member of Generation X. The majority of them are juggling their education with their careers and family responsibilities. These statistics mean that they fall into the category of non-traditional students. However, research shows that the majority (86%) of U.S. college students now have one or more non-traditional traits. These traits may include attending college part-time; not living on a campus; being older than 25 years; and being in the workforce while pursuing degrees. Because they don’t want to spend a lot of time commuting, e-learning is the perfect solution for their educational needs. They also appreciate receiving the entire spectrum of student services online anytime they want. The most popular online courses for most of these students are general education courses such as English, history, psychology, and biology. The Importance of Workforce Training and Partnerships Rio Salado’s e-learning students may simultaneously take career-path courses from us on-site at their places of employment. This is made possible because Rio Salado forges customized educational service partnerships with dozens of corporations and government agencies to provide relevant and industry-specific certificate and degree programs. Examples of such programs are Airline Operations and Quality Customer Service. Consider that nearly 100% of this nation’s employers indicate that all their existing workers need additional training to manage an exploding knowledge base. Yet only 20% of all ! 22 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org work-related training is currently being provided by colleges and universities. Obviously, a vast untapped market is out there for us. Examples of E-learning Collaborations One of Rio Salado’s most unusual e-learning collaborations is a public/private, college/university partnership between Rio Salado and Ottawa University, headquartered in Kansas. Together these two institutions have created the nation’s first online degree program for working police officers. Candidates for this program complete their Associate’s Degree in Law Enforcement Technology through Rio Salado, which has been partnering with regional police academies for 11 years. Officers are then eligible to continue working toward one of two Baccalaureate degrees in police science. These practitioner degrees are structured so they can be earned regardless of where the officers live. This is possible because the upper division courses are self-paced and taken at the officers’ discretion over the Internet. This partnership is much more than an agreement for articulation. The entire curriculum has been co-developed by both institutions, with significant input from the actual practitioners, which in this case are police executives in major markets across the country. We intend for this program to set the national standard by which all criminal justice degree programs are measured. In another example of collaboration, Rio Salado has been selected as one of 29 colleges and universities across the country that will serve as educational providers for the U.S. Army in their new Army University Access Online program. Participating soldiers will receive laptops and tuition waivers compliments of the army. Three Rio Salado degree programs are currently offered. Rio Salado was selected on the basis of our leadership in distance learning, as well as for our long-time work with the military at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Arizona. The consulting firm known as PricewaterhouseCoopers is coordinating the program. Still another example is a working agreement Rio Salado has recently formulated with Charter Oak State College in Connecticut. Charter Oak maintains a contract with one of the nation’s largest insurance firms for career-path education. Charter Oak is able to broker specific health-related courses that are offered by Rio Salado to employees of its client. In addition to these programs, Rio Salado has been partnering for four years with the Arizona State Dental Association (AzDA). The newest joint venture is a clinical dental assisting program that offers a distance-based curriculum using audio and videocassettes and print-based materials. Hands-on skills are taught through unique “distance labs.” Prior to undertaking a paid internship, students attend their Clinical Dental Assistant Practicum in dental clinics where they learn to expose radiographs, perform chair-side skills, operate sterilizers and perform many other procedures requiring close instructor supervision and/or the dental clinic environment. Rio Salado and AzDA have also partnered for a highly successful program to ease the state’s shortage of qualified dental hygienists. Although this program is currently offered on-site at a state-of-the-art $1.2 million training facility in Phoenix, in the future students in rural communities will be able to access the course content via e-learning. Collaborations like these are taking e-learning beyond the realm of individual adult learners and allowing large blocks of students to be served based upon their workplace needs. New Economy Partnerships Rio Salado pro-actively seeks out such partnerships as a strategy for growth and as part of its “New Economy” approach to conducting the business of higher education. During the past 18 months, BusinessWeek and other major media have devoted extensive coverage to “The New Economy.” This phrase is a way of saying that our economic structure is undergoing such fundamental change that we are entering an entirely new era of economic relationships and growth. The New Economy is not just for business. At least 60% of our Rio Salado’s FTSE (full-time student equivalent) now comes as a direct result of the community partnerships we have established. This area of workforce development has proven to be so ripe for us that we have established a sales force at the college. Our representatives are in the community daily, meeting with officials at major employers to determine the educational and training needs of their workers and helping employers identify career paths for employees. Our partners include major players in fast-track industries, including banking, telecommunications, and credit card services, the airlines, travel services, high tech, insurance and aerospace. We assess our partners’ needs, and fulfill them at a higher level than the competition. We customize, customize, customize until we meet or exceed their specialized needs. A research think tank, the Morrison Institute for Public Policy, recently produced a document describing eight characteristics of this New Economy. One of these traits, according to their report, states “Alliances are the way to get things done.” Their report reads in part: ! 23 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org “Maybe the most fundamental shift in business thinking – a logical one, given the significance of networking—is the shift away from self-reliance toward a new model that places more value on alliances…The secret to success, experts say, is not just to align once but to do so over and over again to gain a competitive advantage.” Rio embraces this thinking and therefore seeks to align itself with leading community organizations. gressed from being about connections to being about community. It is forcing us to rethink what we were sure we already knew, namely, the purposes for the existence of the college or university community. Other public and private colleges and universities that are not yet on the Internet bandwagon would do well to understand these trends and to immediately take action. One way to enter the e-learning marketplace is to join a higher education alliance dedicated to this purpose. In Arizona, an example would be Arizona Learning Systems, an alliance of the state’s 10 community college districts. The ALS will provide learner-centered education environments that are supported by a strong technological backbone. It has received $2.4 million in start-up capital from the state legislature. Similar alliances exist in many other states. Tough Competition in E-learning Rio Salado recognized some time ago that to reach this vast and underserved market of adult learners through e-learning, our publicly-funded institution must compete against firms in private industry. These upstart for-profit firms are invading our turf, transforming our ideas, and even renaming academe “the knowledge industry.” Many of these entrepreneurial ventures are receiving multi millions of dollars in venture capital. Nearly $3 billion in venture capital was raised last year. Another $4 billion will follow this year. So far these firms are not suffering the stock market declines so prevalent in e-commerce today. It’s interesting to note that while most technology stocks were plummeting in March of 2001, many educational online stocks were hovering near 52-week highs. Like it or not, the traditional public colleges and universities are being forced to change in order to compete. Change means that those in public and private higher education will have to reinvent ourselves and the way we conduct our business. You’ve probably heard the famous and controversial quote attributed to management guru Peter Drucker during an interview with Forbes Magazine. He said, “The future is outside the traditional campus, outside the traditional classroom. Distance learning is coming on fast.” Here is another quote worth noting. It comes from Reed Hundt, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 1993 to 1997: “The Internet is the biggest threat to the system of higher education in this country that the system has ever seen, and it is a welcome, healthy threat.” The reason, Hundt says, is that the Internet has pro* Predictions for the Future of E-learning With more than 150 million Americans now online, the demand for e-learning can be expected to greatly increase in the next two years. Likewise, the intense competition among elearning providers will most likely result in an eventual shakeout. Those who succeed in workplace e-learning will be the ones who understand the needs of their target markets, develop highly visual and interactive course content, and form alliances that are mutually beneficial for all parties. In conclusion, e-learning in the workplace continues to gain in credibility as more corporate leaders attest to its value. A 1997 report issued by KPMG Peat Marwick, the international accounting and tax firm, reads in part: “Technology is increasingly difficult to ignore. From the education perspective, the whole way that learning takes place will change. In the future, we can expect very different arrangements, many of which will take place online. Increasingly, the learning will be time and location independent. Educational institutions may no longer need the large physical plants that have proven so costly. And adults will be able to fit continuing education and training around their work schedules.” It is only a matter of time before e-learning enters the mainstream of higher education. Dr. Thor is president of Rio Salado College, Tempe, Arizona. Rio Salado, which serves nearly 50,000 students annually, is one of the 10 colleges that comprise the Maricopa Community Colleges. Rio Salado specializes in serving working adults through distance learning, customized partnerships with corporations and government agencies, and accelerated programs. Prior to joining Rio Salado in 1990, Dr. Thor was president of West Los Angeles College. ! 24 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org How NIIT Brings People And Computers Together … Successfully! By C.N. (Madhu) Madhusudan President, Strategic Alliances, NIIT USA Inc. Developing countries are always at crossroads when it comes to technology training. Torn between the wish to be self-sufficient and the inability to invest, they often end up missing the upside that technology can bring. In 1982, in a setting of this kind in India, a company was born - NIIT. In the years that followed, this enterprise brought quality computer education to every major neighborhood in every major city and town and played a major role in paving the way for India’s emergence as an Information Technology superpower. Today, with the power of online learning, its geographical constraints have disappeared and without significant infrastructure investments, NIIT computer education can be brought into any home or any office anywhere in the world. The Initial Years In 1982, Indians had very limited access to Information Technology (IT) education. Only the best technology schools like the Indian Institutes of Technology and a few universities offered IT education. Around this time, a powerful technology was making its impact - microprocessor based computers. But there was one stumbling block in reaping the benefits of this powerful force – lack of trained people. NIIT began operations in 1982 with a vision of fulfilling the massive requirements for IT talent in an information-based economy. Its mission was to deliver IT training to a broad spectrum of people - from students seeking a career in computers to IT professionals requiring advanced skills, from managers needing to use IT, to school children using computers as a learning tool. The initial years were uphill and challenging, primarily due to NIIT being a for-profit enterprise in a society that was used to state funded education. In addition, IT education was not commonly sought after – the disciplines of value were Engineering and Medicine. The shortage of capital, import restrictions and tariffs, and poor infrastructure compounded the difficulty of doing business. The initial positioning was towards bright undergraduates who had degrees in other than Engineering and Medicine and had no jobs. These youngsters found the prospect of a job at the end of an IT training program appealing. NIIT created a placement network for them that worked with industry and ensured that its trainees got jobs upon successful completion of training. In a couple of years, with the popularity of the courses increasing, thanks to the success of placement, NIIT re-positioned its training offering to run concurrently with a traditional undergraduate program. Thus when the young undergraduate emerged from the university with a bachelor’s degree, he/she would also have an NIIT certificate and a job based on that. The popularity of job-oriented IT training increased dramatically over time and fueled the success of Indian companies in the world of software. Real success in terms of social acceptance came about when matrimonial advertisements in leading newspapers preferred NIIT graduates – as it was a passport to a great job! The tides had turned, and IT training was now mainstream. Today, NIIT has around 350,000 students on its rolls and has, over this period, trained around two million people. ! 25 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org The Growth Factors 1. Need Driven Offerings – The Learner Is The Key NIIT developed a range of curricula for people with diverse requirements - from students seeking careers in computers to IT professionals needing advanced training, from business managers seeking a competitive edge to housewives wanting to be computer literate. NIIT offers a wide and comprehensive range of IT education programs to meet the diverse set of training needs. NIIT’s education services are: • Futurz. It focuses on students who are preparing for a career and combines academic rigor with hands-on work experience. It includes a series of programs of duration varying from six months to four years leading to DNIIT and iGNIIT titles. Content areas include e-Commerce Computing, Technology Edge, Quality Management and Personal Effectiveness to create well-rounded IT professionals. The broad-based iGNIIT program comes with a 7-year bank loan that covers the fee of the program, a modem and a printer, and is repayable when the students begin earning their first stipend. CATS (Curriculum for Advanced Technology Studies). CATS exposes IT professionals to the latest technologies, helping them to upgrade their skills and stay ahead of the competition. CATS opens the window to the freshest state-of-the-art technologies in the software arena across the breadth of the Indian professional community. SWIFT (Short Work Programs in Information Technology). SWIFT demystifies computers for people who could gain by making computers an integral part of their lives. Users include housewives, businessmen, lawyers, doctors, government employees and retired professionals. It provides simple and affordable solutions for people catering to the wide literacy needs of non-IT people keen to learn computers. Delivery is through a huge network of user-friendly, informal and vibrant learning centers across India. LEDA (Learning through Exploration, Discovery and Adventure). NIIT created and sourced multimedia software that brings fun back into learning and caters to the needs of families. Apart from school curricula, the LEDA programs address the overall development of a child's personality and skills. NIIT has set up a network of around 100 LEDA Family Clubs- centers for the entire family to use computer-based facilities for learning. To increase access in the metro cities and to cater to the large number of second and third tier cities, NIIT adopted a unique franchising model that harnessed entrepreneurial talent and resources…. In November 2000, the Far Eastern Economic Review called NIIT “the McDonalds of software business.” 2. Focus on Access – Nothing succeeds like Access! To impart IT education, NIIT had to establish education centers. Its initial reach was hampered by the shortage of working capital. Establishing education centers is fairly capital intensive – real estate, interiors, hardware, software, staff … and takes a fair amount of financial resources. NIIT started its operations in Mumbai and through organic growth, slowly expanded into the major metro cities in India. To increase access in the metro cities and to cater to the large number of second and third tier cities, NIIT adopted a unique franchising model that harnessed entrepreneurial talent and resources. This model became wildly successful and NIIT’s network today has 2000 education centers. In November 2000, the Far Eastern Economic Review called NIIT “the McDonalds of software business.” The easy availability of NIIT education is a key growth factor. Most education centers are located in residential or commercial neighborhoods making access very easy. Given their schedules, students pick a convenient NIIT education center and a time slot of their choice. To realize its vision to ‘build a computer literate India’, NIIT took several more initiatives to broad base access to IT education. Some of these initiatives are: • Student Loan Program: NIIT recently launched a Student Loan Program in association with IFC (of the World Bank Group) and Citibank. Worth Rs. 4400 million, this loan is the first step towards the creation of an education loan in India and will allow thousands of students to access NIIT training over the next five years. • • • The availability of a range of training programs to address specific user category needs has been a very important factor in ensuring training effectiveness. ! 26 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org The loan has a unique repayment plan that allows students to repay once they start earning incomes. • • Overseas Recruitment: The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore entered into an agreement with NIIT to recruit 1,000 qualified IT professionals from its global training centers in China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia for employment with Singapore companies. Distance Learning via TV: NIIT leveraged the exploding cable and television medium in India and launched BOOT IT, a program on computers. Using the Indian television network, it reaches millions of viewers across the country. Computer Education in Schools: NIIT works with various State governments in the area of IT education in schools. Following the successful implementation of the Tamil Nadu Schools project where NIIT is providing computer training to 371 schools in the deep interiors of Tamil Nadu, NIIT is also working with the Karnataka Government to offer computer training to students of 700 government schools throughout the state. This ambitious project is expected to touch over 175,000 students every year. Globalization: NIIT’s learning centers are not restricted to Indian markets alone. NIIT launched its first International Center in October 1996 in Hong Kong . NIIT's training is available at over 2000 Learning centers in over 25 countries including China, Malaysia, the USA, Thailand, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. In the global spread, the key to success has been "GLOCALIZATION:" The Curriculum and the mode of learning offered in each country, is influenced by the stage of development of the IT Industry in that country. NIIT courses are delivered in local languages like Mandarin in China, Bahasa in Indonesia, and Thai in Thailand. The idea is to reach customers in the language with which they are most comfortable. The availability of online learning technologies has added a completely new dimension to NIIT’s ability to provide training. 3. Models of Learning Over the last 18 years, NIIT has studied the various models of learning and the effectiveness of such models. • Classroom-Based: This mode of learning is by far the most widely used and the most effective of all the modes of learning. A direct interaction between the learner and • • • • instructor results in a better understanding and retention of the concepts. Computer-Based: The computer based training courses are for those individuals who would like to enhance their technical skills and complete the international certification programs. Typically working IT professionals and individuals interested in pursuing a career in IT stand to benefit the most from the computer-based training courses. Without having to visit education centers per a fixed schedule, trainees can learn anytime with flexible timelines. Web-Based: In the Web-based or Internet-based learning methodology, the learning is through the Internet. This allows the learner the flexibility of anywhere, anytime learning. Hybrid: This mode of learning recreates the classroom for the learner on the Web. The learning here is achieved through an integration of Classroom-Based, ComputerBased and Web-Based learning, drawing on the best of what each medium has to offer. NIIT’s hybrid or Brick & Portal model blends the Mortar (the physical side of the business) with the Portal (the virtual side), thus, helping leverage 'Brick & Mortar' (Instructor-led Training) investments with the power of Portal / Online support (Internet-based Training). • Given the fast changing world of technology, R&D is a vital element in NIIT’s ability to ensure that its training is most effective and relevant to industry. 4. Research and Development (R&D) Given the fast changing world of technology, R&D is a vital element in NIIT’s ability to ensure that its training is most effective and relevant to industry. R&D at NIIT focuses on areas including Multimedia, Instructional Design Methodology and Interface Design. This focus on R&D has enabled NIIT to be a leading producer of Educational Multimedia and OnLine Learning Software and Instructor-Led training. The Internet opened up new opportunities in learning. In 1996, NIIT’s R&D scientists set up the NIIT NetVarsity, an online learning university. Its aim is to make IT education easily accessible to people, all the time and everywhere through the Internet. ! 27 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org The power of OnLine Learning - Content and Services NIIT's training programs are now delivered based on the Brick & Portal model providing the learner with an integrated delivery mechanism that combines physical mentoring with online content and services. OnLine Services include: • • • • Testing : Students can take tests on a wide range of topics as many times as they want. First Access: Provides students with the latest updates on technological advancements. Experts Answer: Provides students with a resource to respond to subject-specific doubts - 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Global Forum: A forum to discuss issues with a community of peers. The quality of content and the ability to provide learning content online are important elements that determine the effectiveness of the learner. OnLine Learning Services form a very powerful mechanism of determining and ensuring learner effectiveness – with help desks, mentors, peer groups, testing tools and all the advantages of a traditional classroom environment. Future Directions We believe that online technology provides us with a very powerful tool to change the way people learn. One of our research projects titled “A hole in the wall” is based on a hypothesis that children, even terribly poor ones with little education, can quickly become computer literate, provided they find it interesting enough. Based on the principles of “Minimally Invasive Education,” this is an ongoing experiment that explores the convergence of three domains: education, the psychology of learning, and technology. The project initially involved installing a personal computer with high-speed data connection in a window carved out in a boundary wall at the NIIT headquarters in New Delhi. The wall separates the company's building from a wasteland housing a slum. The computer is encased in a weatherproof housing with a plexiglass screen. There's no external keyboard, but there's a joystick for a mouse and two pushbuttons for clickers. While installing the computer, NIIT engineers also rigged up a video camera in a nearby tree so they could watch the comings and goings at the wall and monitor the sites and applications that the children are using. The experiment came up with some astonishing results. The children from the slum, all of them desperately poor, speak only Hindi, and at first they didn't even know what a computer was. They simply called it “the thing.” The hourglass icon is something unknown, so the kids use the word damru. The god Shiva’s drum is called damru in Hindi - and it's shaped just like an hourglass. So that's the word they use. To describe the on-screen pointer, the kids say sui. In Hindi, it means “needle”. So when the computer is working, the sui becomes the damru. Through trial and error, the children quickly taught themselves some basic computer operations, and it wasn't long before they were downloading Hindi music files from the Web, playing cartoon games online, and landing 747s on Flight Simulator. We are still in the process of understanding how this learning can be harnessed and used to design better and more effective learning. Several questions arise. Can this type of online learning be the gateway to narrow the gap between the information haves and have-nots. Can we imagine the power of placing online learning stations like this in every urban neighborhood, in every town, in every village? How do we design online outdoor learning kiosks that can withstand the searing heat waves, dust storms and monsoons that seasonally sweep the country? How do we handle mercurial phone connections and paper-thin bandwidth, along with the power surges and blackouts that are daily or even hourly occurrences? In Conclusion The power of online learning is awesome. We are learning to create content, design interfaces, and provide services that encourage continuous learning. By combining online content with online services, by combining structure with the ease of discovery and by providing access everywhere and all the time, we hope we will be able to address the need for lifelong learning - everywhere and all the time. ! 28 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org CORPORATE E-TRAINING: Three Examples from Across the World Sonia Jurich • • Corporations are adopting e-learning to train and re-train their workforce.1 This article summarizes solutions found by corporations located in three different parts of the globe, to meet their training needs. AXA, THE FRENCH SOLUTION2 The growth of e-learning training in France has been slow, when compared to the United States. While e-learning makes for 60 percent of the expenses of corporate training in the U.S., in France it makes for only 11 percent. Surveys of French companies indicate that face to face is still the preferred training model and that many human resources employees are not clear about the e-learning potential as a training tool.3 Axa is among the exceptions. Axa is a multinational insurance group with close to 100,000 employees in 25 countries. Like many other large companies, Axa was having difficulties in providing training to its large and scattered workforce. However, sending employees out for training or bringing trainers to its different branches was becoming increasingly complex and expensive. Axa’s Human Resources Department, in France, decided to use their Intranet connection to develop a distance learning program based on modules, which would ensure a fast distribution for a large audience. The modular structure made it easier and less costly to establish a schedule of frequent reviews of the content material to maintain the curriculum updated. The company started its e-learning training project in 1997. It entered into partnership with IBM for the technical aspects of the training and with other partners for the production of educational material. Before starting the project, the Human Resources Department organized a five-day retreat with the managers where they had to play a game of opening new markets using only telephone and portable computers to communicate. The exercise gave the managers an opportunity to rethink their views about ICTs and their potential. After ensuring the managers’ support, the Department met with the employees to discuss the changes and teach them how to use the Intranet for training purposes. Only then, the Department began to gradually introduce e-learning strategies in the employees’ traditional training schedule. The pilot stage provided good results and some important lessons, including the following: • Supervisors’ support is essential for the success of any training project; they must be allies, rather than barriers to employees’ training. It is important to have a place reserved for the training process and someone to encourage and prod the trainee; few individuals will have the self-discipline to search for training independently. Developing training materials for multinational workforces is a major challenge, since learning preferences vary across countries – for instance, the Anglo-Saxons preferred to begin with anecdotes and move into the general, while the French preferred to look at the general and move into the particular, and the Germans required traditional structures. Training varies between 40 and 400 hours per employee. The employee can go through the training individually or with a tutor’s help. Tutors are experts in the content area who volunteer to work with the distance education experts. They can be reached by mail, telephone or face-to-face. Piloted in one of the French branches, e-learning training is now available to all Axa employees worldwide. CARREFOUR, A BRAZILIAN EXPERIENCE4 Carrefour is probably the largest wholesale chain in Brazil, with almost 50,000 employees. The chain, founded in 1963 in France, has a long tradition of employee training. In the late 1980s, Carrefour had founded one of the first “corporate universities” in the world, the Institute Marcel Fournier, and was using video-conferencing for employee training. Currently, the chain has three “corporate universities,” one of them in São Paulo, Brazil – the Instituto de Formação Carrefour (Carrefour Training Institute). The universities offer a variety of training not only to employees, but also to clients and vendors. The Brazilian Institute provides 114 courses in different areas that include informatics, marketing, management, etc. The programs have different platforms, including multimedia, video, DVD, television broadcast via satellite, and Intranet. The training programs vary from four hours to 15 days. Some courses are mandatory while others are elective and participation depends on the interests of the employee and his or her supervisor. Courses can also be provided on site, and the Institute has many training rooms in addition to a large auditorium with simultaneous translation capabilities. At this time, the Institute is serving only employees, but training programs for clients and vendors are programmed to ! 29 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org open late this year. Plans for expansion also include courses on the Internet and a mix of online and face-to-face strategies. In less than one year of functioning, the Institute has trained about 3,000 employees. The reasons Carrefour moved into e-learning are similar to Axa’s. As the chain spread throughout the country, the distance between stores and training centers pushed costs up; elearning provides economies with traveling costs and reduces the time that employees are away from work. E-learning also avoids the complex logistics of planning and implementing training for large numbers of individuals coming from many different places. In addition, it is easier and less expensive to actualize e-learning material than printed material. The company also perceived a need to maintain a technological lead. According to the Institute’s Training Director, “The majority of large businesses in the world is investing in online training . . . and some are well advanced in this area. We could not be left behind.” The Cisco Networking Academy Program prepares high school and college students in how to design, build and maintain computer networks. There are more than 6,000 academies spread through all 50 American states. The Academies reflect partnerships between the company and private or governmental organizations, including public schools. Other training activities provided by Cisco include online seminars and Career Certifications programs. The certification program has grown from 6,000 students per year to 100,000 and is offered online or through more than 130 sites and 750 certified instructors worldwide. Some of the courses are offered by Cisco Learning Partners – organizations authorized to deliver Cisco-developed learning content. CONCLUSION According to Cisco, in the current economy “the key to gaining a competitive advantage is the ability to rapidly disseminate information, education, and training.” When faced with the need to improve and expand their training programs, all three companies described here came to the conclusion that e-learning strategies were the ideal solution. They are only three among a growing number of corporations worldwide that are discovering the potential of Information and Communications Technologies as a training tool. It is estimated that in France, despite cultural resistance, e-learning will grow by 42 percent in the next five years.6 In the U.S. the size of the online training market is expected to double yearly until the end of 2003, when it will be worth $11.5 billion.7 E-learning is proving to be the solution for companies that need to provide high quality, cost-effective and ongoing training to a growing network of employees, business partners and customers across the world. In addition to the articles in this issue, for more on e-Learning see also Vigil, R., "Getting the most out of online training: Integrating the missing ingredients." TechKnowLogia, July/August, 2000. A discussion of advantages and disadvantages of different e-learning models is found in Ghys, S. (2001). L’e-learning en cinq méthods. ZDNet France, at http://www.zdnet.fr/actu/busi/a0018468.html. 2 Based on Ghys, S. (March 5, 2001). Comment Axa a mené la ZDNet France, at bataille de l’e-learning. http://www.zdnet.fr/actu/busi/a0018470.html. 3 Ghys, S. (March 5, 2001). E-learning: les enterprises françaises restent à convaincre. ZDNet, France, at http://www.zdnet.fr/actu/cgi-bin/affiche.pl?ID=18467. 4 Based on Britto, M. De olho no futuro. TI Master, Brazil, at http://www.timaster.com.br/ext_materia.asp?codigo=286. 5 For details about Cisco’s e-learning activities, see Metz, M. (2000). The New World learning challenge, at http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/10/wwtraining/elearning/implem ented/best.html. 6 In Ghys, S, E-learning: les enterprises françaises restent à convaincre. (above) 7 In Desmond, M. (November 15, 2000). The Evolution of Corporate E-Learning at http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/750/iq/ele/fea/pul/ele_fea_pul_0 001/ele_fea_pul_0001_1.shtml 1 CISCO LEARNING NETWORK5 Cisco Systems is one of the largest network companies in the world with annual revenues of over US$20 billion. Headquartered in the U.S.A., the company has 225 sales and support offices in 75 countries. For years, its training programs were managed independently at each different unit, resulting in redundant and unequal programming. To streamline, expedite and improve the quality of the training programs, the Company developed the Cisco Learning Network (CLN). CLN training contents are developed using multimedia technologies and stored in a centralized database. The employee selects either a full curriculum or individual modules and takes an assessment test. The test results guide the adaptation of the module to respond to the employee’s individual needs. The employee is evaluated at different intervals to gauge the effectiveness of the program, and results are stored in a personal training file in the human resources database. E-learning programs can be provided in two ways: (1) in scheduled delivery, at fixed time and place or (2) on-demand, for individuals who have particular needs. Scheduled delivery uses three platforms: multicasts (videos that are sent over the network to desktops), virtual classrooms, and remote laboratories. On-demand training uses web-based ondemand content, CD-ROM, and remote labs. The laboratories are used to supplement complex topics. They include simulations that provide virtual access to equipment and techniques too costly to be available for every learner. The CLN system promotes significant savings of time away from work - it was observed that CLN courses reduced the time that the sales employees spent away from their customers by up to 40 percent. Cisco’s training expertise has outgrown the corporation and the company is now a major developer of training solutions. ! 30 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Higher Education and Enterprise Training in Latin America: The Case of the Virtual Campus of Peru's Higher Technological Institute By Laurence Wolff and Norma Garcia Inter-American Development Bank Higher education institutions in Latin America are only now beginning to realize the potential of working with and supporting industry and commerce through Internet based learning opportunities for technical and professional workers. The most well known and successful program is that of Mexico's Technological Institute of Monterey (ITESM), deThis article describes a rapidly expanding program scribed in the January/February 2000 issue of TechKnowLogia. being undertaken by Peru’s Higher Technological Institute (TECSUP). TECSUP has a similar history to that of ITESM. It was established in 1982, by leading Peruvian industrialists, who wanted an institution that could service industry's needs for technical workers. TECSUP has grown to be an institution that now enrolls students in two campuses in a wide variety of technical, technological, and business subjects, and in 1999, it started its virtual campus. Meeting Skill Needs Peru, a country of approximately 26 million people, has a per capita income of only $2400 and wide disparities in income. Both local and foreign private investments have grown considerably during the past 10 years, which have resulted in the country’s economy becoming more modern and technologyintensive. But a shortage of skilled technical workers, especially in the country’s core production industries that include mining, energy, oil and communications industries, continues to be a major constraint. Employment in these sectors has grown rapidly in the 1990's, and now accounts for over half a million jobs. The communications sector is currently the fastest growing sector of the Peruvian economy. In 1999 alone, it recorded a 21.6% growth and investments are expected to reach US$ 2.5 billion by 2003. In response to the shortage of skilled workers, the past 20 years have seen an explosion of Higher Technology Institutes (Institutos Superiores Tecnologicos, or ISTs) throughout the country. These institutes offer short-term (up to three years) post secondary training programs focusing on practical, not theoretical, learning. Many, but not all, of these institutions suffer from ill-equipped facilities, outdated teaching techniques and weak links with the industrial sector. courses for technical personnel as well as for using innovative teaching tools and methods. TECSUP has two campuses, one in Lima and the other in Arequipa, the country’s second important city. Peruvian enterprises have been the main source of funding, with a total of 175 enterprises donating over US$18 million for TECSUP’s operation. Entrepreneurs actively participate in the institution’s technical committees to assist in the process of designing, evaluating, adding or discontinuing courses, appraising teaching tools and methods, etc. TECSUP currently offers three-year technical programs that confer a technical degree, as well as individual courses in areas ranging from leadership and discipline, to top computer and management skills, and maintenance, installation and operation of modern equipment. More than 90% of the students who graduate from these programs are able to find a job in a relatively short period of time. TECSUP also offers short-term technical development courses for those who are already part of the work force and need to sharpen their skills, in the areas of heavy equipment maintenance, plant maintenance, industrial electronic engineering, electronics and industrial automation, chemical and metallurgical processes, data networks and communications. TECSUP also delivers “closed” courses that are specifically tailored to meet the needs of the particular enterprises, delivered either at the TECSUP or at the enterprises’ facilities. So far, over The Case of TECSUP Among the group of technical institutes TECSUP is widely known for delivering high quality training and development ! 31 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org 1,136 short-term training courses have been delivered to more 18,700 students. Over 55% of the students enrolled in TECSUP come from low socioeconomic levels with family monthly incomes of US$ 500 or less. However, TECSUP is able to deliver courses at relatively low fees, with an average course costing approximately the equivalent of US$57. Some of the students taking the “open” short-term courses are sponsored by their companies and others cover their own expenses. In addition, students can take advantage of a system of educational loans (créditos educativos), which allows students to pay for their education during a set period of time after course completion. Because of its track record, TECSUP has attracted a total of US$13.6 million in external funding from sources such as USAID, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Canadian government and the European Union. The German State of Baden Württemberg has helped to fund TECSUP since the beginning, including the initial creation of the curricula, expert advise, teacher training and equipment acquisition. other students, and interact with the teacher through the Internet. Students are required to present themselves to take a final examination at a specified TECSUP testing center at the end of each course, but may log in and study at any given time. The virtual courses are designed, monitored and evaluated by a team of experts, hardware and software are updated on a regular basis, and teachers constantly receive training on virtual campus teaching methodologies in order to better serve the needs of the students online or through email. TECSUP Virtu@l has been able to take advantage of the development of communication systems and the increased access by the Peruvian population to the Internet to expand its course availability throughout the country. However, it should be pointed out that TECSUP's programs are still reaching just a small portion of Peru’s needs for in-service training of workers. The Future of Internet-Based Programs There is a need and potential for Internet-based programs provided by higher education institutions, like those of TECSUP and ITESM, throughout Latin America as well as other developing countries. Private institutions, with their greater agility and ability to identify new clienteles, have, in general, taken the lead. The key to success appears to be a close and continuing relationship with industry to identify new and evolving training needs, direct industry financing, gain flexibility in designing courses and course content, and establish start-up technical assistance in virtual course design and management. To begin to meet these needs, many higher education institutions, especially public ones, will need to overcome an accumulation of attitudes and conditions which lead them to be suspicious of providing services to private industry. These institutions still have the remnants of the "ivory tower" concept that they should only seek and disseminate theoretical knowledge and be unsullied by associations with industry, commerce and other profit-making institutions. Throughout Latin America, there are efforts to reform public sector higher education institutions, including encouraging them to seek non-public funding, and to become more entrepreneurial, without abandoning some of their more traditional functions and objectives. Given the needs, success in this effort is important since it will help to increase the number and quality of institutions offering both virtual and in-person training services to industry and commerce. Going Virtual Aware of the potential for virtual training, TECSUP, in 1999, became the first IST in the country to set up a virtual campus, TECSUP Virtu@l. TECSUP received assistance from the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM), as well as the Open University in Cataluña (Spain) in course design. It has signed a cooperation agreement with the Madrid Polytechnic University to accredit its distance education courses. Currently over 1600 technical workers are enrolled in workforce Internet training. The Inter-American Development Bank is supporting expansion of the virtual campus. It is expected that within the next three years, 7900 technical workers and 840 students pursuing technical degrees will participate in virtual courses in areas such as informatics, business applications, and engineering. The virtual campus enables students to take courses at their convenience from TECSUP facilities, their workplace, their homes or public Internet kiosks that are rapidly becoming available throughout the country. Approximately 40% of TECSUP’s distance continuing education students log into the campus from their workplace, 30% from public booths and 20% from home. Roughly 40% of students enrolled in the campus are from Lima and 60% are from over 67 other localities. TECSUP’s Internet courses generally have a fixed sevenweek duration. Once enrolled in a course, the student is able to study the course content, perform self-evaluations to monitor his or her performance, participate in debates with Sources Inter-American Development Bank Interactive DistanceLearning System for Technology Education project; Mario Rivera TECSUP Director, Andrés Astorne, TECSUP Director of Promotion and Development; TECSUP website: http://www.tecsup.edu.pe ! 32 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org HONDURAS : Solar Energy Bridges the Digital Divide Aimee Verdisco Education Unit, Inter-American Development Bank Analyda Melara de Fanconi Minister, Honduran Council for Science and Technology A Path of Stones – A Pathway to Knowledge San Ramón, a village of about 840 people located in the hills above Choluteca (Honduras), is proof positive of the power of new technologies to leapfrog over traditional barriers to development. San Ramón, with support from UNESCO and Consejo Hondureño de Ciencia y Tecnologia (COHCIT) and others, has become the world's first solar power community hooked up to the Internet. Above and beyond the potential of the Internet and other less sophisticated technologies (e.g., television) to expand horizons beyond San Ramón and Choluteca, the results are interesting for a number of reasons. First, the fact that solar energy has been the power source of choice says volumes about the status of San Ramón vis-à-vis public policy. To say that San Ramón is an isolated community may be an understatement. Access doesn't come easy. Although located a mere 24 kilometers from a main thoroughfare, the journey up to San Ramón requires a good 45 minutes in a 4x4 all-terrain vehicle - and a strong stomach. There is no road to speak of. Rather, a path of stones, ravines, and otherwise tough conditions leads slowly upwards. It has been this lack of accessibility, coupled with the relatively low number of inhabitants, that has made the government less than anxious to extend the distribution network from Choluteca to San Ramón. At least not in the short- to medium-term. Per unit costs as well as accessibility considerations meant that if power were to come to the village, it would have to do so by means other than the "traditional" methods at the disposal of the state and public policy. Among these, solar energy figured prominently. Second, San Ramón, like many remote villages throughout the country, suffers from low levels of education, productivity and, in general, quality of life. It was a zero (on the scale of one to ten) according to its cacique, or leader, Don Jeronimo. Given its remoteness, the village could neither maintain teachers for its school (primary level only) nor benefit in a timely manner from a number of other public services - e.g., vaccinations. Aspirations also were low. Indeed, as one villager joked, "the moon seemed closer than Tegucigalpa." With the support of UNESCO and COHCIT, San Ramón started exploring the potential of alternative energy sources as a way to trek out of its darkness and isolation. In February 1999, and in the wake of Hurricane Mitch, solar panels were strategically installed throughout the village. This process culminated on 8 July, 1999, when the President of Honduras Carlos Roberto Flores, inaugurated San Ramón as the first solar energy village of Latin America. Since then, the results and experiences of San Ramón have caught the attention of many, both within Honduras and beyond. The energy generated through the solar panels powers a variety of community services. Included here are: • five streetlights; • six classrooms, each of which has its own electrical outlets for a TV/VHS, computer, or other pieces of equipment; • a community center, also with outlets for fans, computers, TVs, etc.; • an innovative classroom equipped with 11 computers, a TV, video and tape recorder, digital cameras, scanners, printers, etc.; • a health clinic, including a heating and cooling system for water, storage of medicines and vaccines; and • lighting within the village's church. As of October of 2000, San Ramón has gone global, wired to the Internet through each of the 11 computers in its innovative classroom. These changes, literally, have given power to the people. On a scale of one to ten, villagers claim the quality of life has improved from a zero to an eight. Governed by a local development council comprised of representatives from throughout the village, resources have been ! 33 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org allocated, decisions taken, and activities prioritized. The use of new technologies to improve the quality of education has received considerable attention, both from village elders and across Honduran society. His Eminence, Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez recently lauded the project, as did the Vice-Minister of Education, Dr. Armando Euceda, who referred to the experience in San Ramón as the most promising in the country. new meaning and substance to "lifelong learning," opening new possibilities for learning to populations outside the formal education system, and may serve to motor small and micro enterprises (although the lack of access is likely to limit any real possibilities along these lines). The Beginning of a Long Journey That said, the potential of technology has yet to be maximized. Technology offers neither a magic wand for improving the quality of education nor a means for short cutting the educational process. Technology can help inform, but it cannot "knowledge." Knowledge results from using a series of intellectual and analytical tools to interpret information and make it relevant to a given situation. Considerable care needs to be taken in introducing technology into the educational process in that considerable distance separates information and knowledge. If technology is used and programmed as an add-on, something additional requiring extra time and effort from teachers, and is not integrated into the learning process itself, neither attitudes nor learning are likely to change. In fact, technology thus added on top of the learning process may do little more than trivialize education. As Claudio de Moura Castro, former Chief of Inter-American Development Bank’s Education Unit, convincingly argues, access to machines is only a part of the problem. The crux of the problem is how to get the education potential of the computer to take off. This, of course, is not something that can be left to chance - just as education, as a process and a public good, can't be left to chance. Nor is it something that can left to the invisible hand of the market. If San Ramón is to take full advantage of the doors access to technology opens, the state, in all its instances and in all senses of the word and despite all obstacles (including infrastructure), will have to have a larger presence in the community (this process has already begun). Issues of sustainability will have to be explored in details, as will those related to cost-recovery. To wit, San Ramón's local development council already has mandated user-fees for all activities not strictly related to the community. For example, villagers wishing to use the Internet to communicate with relatives beyond San Ramón must pay to do so. Issues of coordination also will take on added importance. COHCIT will have to expand its supervision and, if access and coverage of public policies such as education and health is to be increased, collaboration between San Ramón and respective Secretariats at the state, regional and municipal level will have to be deepened. The foundation for such collaboration has been laid and, if the experience to date is any indication of what the future holds, expectations should be kept high. It is in this regard that the experience of San Ramón may have the most lasting effects: serving as a catalyst for mobilizing communities around and in the name of the common good. Perhaps now a new road? Pathways to Efficiency Although no hard data are available, a number of convincing arguments can be made for bringing technology to communities such as San Ramón. For one, technology - including TVs, VHS and computers - increase the "attractiveness" of school. This may be subjective, but it is no minor consideration. In a country plagued by low education attainment, where repetition and dropout run rampant, any "incentive" that keeps kids in school and channels their energies towards learning-related activities is likely to go a long way in reducing overall costs. Witness the volume of resources governments throughout the world lose due to repetition. (By one estimate, the total amount of resources the InterAmerican Development Bank has invested in education over the course of the last four decades pales in comparison with the amount lost each year throughout Latin America and the Caribbean due to repetition.) Seen in this light, investments made in machines, software and training are likely to be recovered in a relatively short timeframe. In much the same vein, and especially in a community as isolated and remote as San Ramón, technology increases the chances that teachers will actually show up for class and remain at the service of the village for years to come. Again, this is no small consideration. Students across Honduras receive merely 180 hours/year of class time (compared to 1,200 hours a year in industrialized countries), given high rates of absenteeism among teachers and other factors, including strikes (according to the OAS, anywhere from 10 to 40 days a year can be lost due to strikes). A formidable challenge thus is making better use of time actually spent in the classroom. Technology has considerable potential for improving the quality of education. The options are many and run the gamut from the use of distance education modalities to increase access to students as well as to provide training for teachers, to the use of materials (e.g., CD-ROMs, videos, case studies) to supplement official curricula. And, in San Ramón, solar energy and other technologies have served to leverage more from the state. As of 2000, a basic education center operates in the village (grades 1-9; previous to this date, education was offered only through the 6th grade), as does a pre-primary cycle. Future plans include the creation of the diversified cycle (grades 10-12). Technology also gives ! 34 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Distance Learning in Developing Countries: Is Anyone Measuring Cost-Benefits? sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation featured almost two dozen papers by researchers at US universities who had developed new approaches to Distance Learning –in individual courses, like Calculus, Physics, English Composition, Biology, Statistics and many others—and in complete academic programs like the MBA.3 While each course was well planned and apparently very popular with students, it was not certain whether there was any significant difference between the special treatment and the traditional delivery methods. Did the students really learn more? If so, was it because they preferred the convenience of the Distance Learning process? Did the Internet-based graphics attract the interest of these technologically literate college students? Was there an improvement in retention of the material presented? Issues like these are at the heart of any Distance Learning discussion that seeks to determine the true value of the technology—yet they are precisely the questions that have proved so difficult in the Distance Learning debate. The Institute for Higher Education Policy, supported by the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, examined Distance Learning in the United States and concluded, “there is a paucity of true, original research dedicated to explaining or predicting related to distance learning.” 4 This finding seems improbable since there have been thousands of studies comparing Distance Learning with “traditional” teaching. Yet most of these studies have been found to be flawed statistically, either not controlling for extraneous variables, or use subjects that are not randomly selected, not controlling for reactive effects, etc. Stephen Ruth and Min Shi, George Mason University, Virginia, USA Distance Learning is becoming a major issue in education and in strategic planning for regional development. To the college administrator it is a possible source of an entirely new model for deploying resources for students. For businesses it is both a way of changing the traditional methods used to teach skills and a possible new source of profitability. For multinational organizations like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) or the World Bank, Distance Learning may have the potential to deliver the precious resource of knowledge to some of the most destitute countries of the earth, while at the same time stimulating the growth of fledgling telcom infrastructures. This article takes a brief, sober look at Distance Learning in the context of developing countries. Distance Learning is a significant topic in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) discussions because it is both a medium and a metaphor. As a medium, it promises to deliver knowledge to the poorest countries and as a metaphor it connotes the harnessing of many ICT capabilities in a noble cause—what Alfred Bork calls “a new learning paradigm.”1 For those who view education as the most important priority for the world’s poorest countries, Distance Learning is perhaps the most significant method for accomplishing a miraculous, leapfrogging transformation. Even in the continent of Africa, which, by any standard, is among the world’s poorest regions in ICT and especially Internet deployment, there are scores of significant attempts to implement Distance Learning. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a significant donor in developing countries, sponsored a study of Distance Learning in Africa last year and found an abundance of Distance Learning programs being initiated and managed, even in some of the world’s most destitute countries.2 These programs use all the technologies that are normally associated with Distance Learning: correspondence courses, radio, television, telephone, Internet, telecenters, CDROM and satellite broadcasting. Similar efforts are underway in developing countries in Asia, and in South and Central America. Crucial Information for Investing in Distance Learning: Cost and Yield The debate over the effectiveness of knowledge transfer through Distance Learning continues—but there is virtually no debate at all about its cost, even though in the US alone the annual education budget (K-12, postsecondary and business) approaches one trillion dollars. Are courses administered at distance expensive compared to “traditional" ones? What is the cost per student for an on-line MBA, versus one taught face to face with an instructor? Surprisingly, the cost discussion is muted. The press is beginning to take note of this disparity between the increasing popularity of on-line programs and the lack of cost figures. A recent article found that only the highest volume (high student count) courses were able to operate without a financial loss. 5 Apparently, Determining the Value of Distance Learning: Too Difficult? Despite the proliferation of Distance Learning applications worldwide, there has been a problem in comparing results of technology-assisted instruction with traditional methods, even in the most developed countries. A recent conference ! 35 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Distance Learning does not have an inherent economic advantage. The literature on Distance Learning implementation in developing countries, like that in the United States, is characterized by a paucity of data about assessment and cost. The extensive JICA report on Africa’s Distance Learning, mentioned earlier, includes no information whatsoever about cost or assessment. Even the great multilateral organizations, like the World Bank and UNDP, seem reluctant to do economic outcomes measurements that could guide effective implementation. Are virtual universities in the poorest parts of the world a solid investment? What are the outcomes of courses that are delivered electronically in countries that have only the most tenuous ICT infrastructure? From our perspective there are two very simple dimensions that can and should be used in developing policy level decisions about Distance Learning investment. The first is total pro- Develop Sample of the Cost/Yield Approach in Developing Countries Figure 1 describes cost and yield graphically. Five Distance Learning approaches are positioned on an x-y graph. The ideal case is an approach that has low cost and high yield, the upper left segment of the graph. The least valuable case is in the lower right part, where high costs are accompanied by low effectiveness. Correspondence courses are positioned on the graph as being the best mix of cost and yield. This form of Distance Learning has been used since mid 1800’s and is still highly effective in poor countries.8 Despite the difficulties of postal systems and the delays in lesson transmission, correspondence courses are widely employed. In the middle of the cost/ yield continuum are the combination of correspondence with TV as well as with and radio9 and Internet/CDROM. Each of these has its own strengths and weak- YIELD CORRESPONDENCE COURSES • RADIO TV/RADIO • INTERNET/CD-ROM • • VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY • COST Figure 1: Estimated cost vs. yield points for developing countries’ current implementation of various Distance Learning approaches. (Each region would have different characteristics and, over time, the virtual university would move more upward, and probably outward, on the graph.) gram cost. Program cost includes all the materials, technology, advising, infrastructure, rent, travel, software and hardware, etc., that must be paid by an organization or donor to achieve the desired result. Several viable cost models exist to facilitate this computation.6 The second variable is yield—the aggregate result or outcome that was obtained for the investment. Yield can be measured in graduation rates, new approaches developed for further improvement, job success after training, etc. A recent study in Romania developed a four-step approach for measuring the yield of technology courses using a traditional model widely employed by large global businesses.7 The methodologies exist but organizations seem unwilling to employ them. nesses. Radio is the dominant electronic communications device in the world, but is sometimes cumbersome to use in distance education without adequate recording systems. TV is also popular but not as available as radio. Most African countries, for example, have several hundred radio receivers per 1000 inhabitants but less than a third of that for TV.10 CD-ROM has the advantage of combining the best of WWW and audio, but the disadvantage of requiring computer skills and culture. The yield of virtual universities in developing countries is relatively low, compared with the cost. Virtual universities are expensive, require good bandwidth, and need an ICT infrastructure that is daunting, even for a developing nation. ! 36 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org While this method is ideal from a theoretical perspective, it is not likely to deliver results proportionate to its cost for a decade or more. The most successful private virtual university in the US, University of Phoenix, has market-driven entrance requirements; i.e., students must be over 21 and have a job. The degree programs cost between $20,000 and $30,000 per student. Of course, the student must also have access to a good Internet/WWW infrastructure. So far University of Phoenix has less than ten thousand graduates, while most other US private virtual universities have far fewer.11 Internet Connectivity—the Digital Chasm Table 1 is a reminder of the severe difficulty that is entailed by trying to implement a virtual university or any other Internet-based Distance Learning approach in a developing nation. It shows the numbers of Internet host sites and the number of Internet users worldwide. Africa has approximately one-fifth of one percent of the world's Internet host sites. Many of the poorest countries of Asia show Africalike numbers, too, since over half the Asia totals are due to one country: Japan. (China is emerging rapidly—with over 20 million Internet users. See below) Even in the regions where bandwidth and host site numbers are exceptional, as in the US, Britain, Finland and Netherlands, the kinds of user services needed for synchronous or asynchronous Internet availability around the clock are still not adequate to provide broadband service to a large population. So even the Internet-rich countries do not have sufficient broadband service. courses, to some Internet-based courses, and ultimately to completely virtual universities. An example can be found in the experience of China in leveraging the potential benefits of Distance Learning. The evolution of culture, infrastructure, technology, content and deployment has led to extremely rapid developments. The diffusion of the Internet in China in business and government has been closely linked to the rise of Distance Learning at Chinese universities. China has experienced two generations of technologyassisted Distance Learning. The first is broadcast/TV-based Distance Learning, which has led to China having the largest education network in the world. This network consists of the Central Radio and TV University (CCRTV), forty-four Provincial TV Universities (PTVU's) and thousands of branch schools and study centers. Over one hundred million Chinese are currently receiving training or further education through special television channels, and as of 1997, more than two million Chinese had received university diplomas from these TV universities. 12 For more on China’s CCRTV, see “China: Teacher Training with TV Technology,” TechKnowLogia, November/December 2000. China's second distance learning generation, based on Internet technologies, began in mid 1990's. In 1994, the first TCP/IP-based public computer network, China Education and Research Network (CERNET), linked Tsinghua University and nine other universities in a manner similar to the early BITNET in the United States. In 1997, Hunan University became China's first on-line university, and a year later Region Table 1: Internet Hosts and Users by Region as of April 1, 2001 Internet Hosts (000) Internet Users (000) Africa 265 (0.2%) 2,901 (0.7%) Asia 8,929 (7.86%) 70,073 (17.8%) Europe 20,309 (17.9%) 89,066( 22.6%) Oceania 2,062 (1.8%) 17,227(4.0%) Central America 467(0.4%) 1,538 (0.4%) South America 1,264 (1.1%) 16,593(4.2%) North America 80,299(70.7%) 194,556(49.3%) Total 113,595(100%) 394,573(100%) Source: Telecordia Internet Sizer site Internet Hosts and Users by Country http://www.netsizer.com/. Recommended Approach: Slow, Volume-based Growth, Emphasizing Proven Technologies If bandwidth is a problem even in the most developed countries, what kinds of Distance Learning implementation strategies are possible in Africa, South America and Asia? The answer lies in some of the insights from Figure 1 above. Simple technologies gradually lead to higher usage rates and ultimately to gradual leveraging of newer capabilities—a progression from correspondence courses to radio/TV three others joined, to pioneer distance learning development in the country. By early 2000, the initial four pioneers had grown to a consortium of over thirty universities and colleges, with considerable autonomy over admissions, programs and degree offerings. Nearly 200,000 students were offered seats in these programs.13 Since less than one in ten graduating high school students has a chance to enter college, there is increased demand from that population to matriculate through technology-based means if the campus-based curriculum is not offered. An- ! 37 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org other large demand comes from students who are already matriculated, including those in colleges, high schools and primary schools. Millions need help with tutorials, focused learning in a specific area of specialization or the opportunity to take a course not offered at their school or region. A recent report of China's Internet Development found that countrywide there were 22.5 million people online, 69 percent of whom used dial-up connections. Almost 30 percent of these users were in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. About 60 percent of these users were between 18 and 30 years of age. Of six main Internet Service Providers in China, one, CERNET, has been designated as the primary provider for the academic community and is offering links in the 500 kilobits-per-second range.14 Endnotes Bork, Alfred. “Learning Technology.” EDUCAUSE Review, January/February 2000. [On-Line] URL: http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm00/pp074081.pdf) 2 Fillip, Barbara, “Distance Education in Africa: New Technologies and New Opportunities,” JICA report, February 23rd, 2000. 3 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation: “Cost Effective Uses of Technology in Training (CUETT) program,” November 8th, 2000, Columbia University. http://www.ceutt.org/ 4 Institute for Higher Education Policy: “What’s the Difference? A Review of Contemporary Research on the Effectiveness of Distance Learning in Higher Education,” April, 1999. http://www.ihep.com/difference.pdf 5 Carr, Sarah, “Is Anyone Making Money on Distance Education?” Chronicle of Higher Education. February 16, 2001. Available online, via subscription, at: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v47/i23/23a04101.htm 6 Bacsich, Paul, et al., “The Costs of Networked Learning.” Telematics in Education Research Group, Sheffield Hallam University, 1999. http://www.shu.ac.uk/virtual_campus/cnl/report1/index.htm 7 Ruth, Stephen, "Measuring Long Term Effects of Technology Transfer In Developing Nations: The Case of Internet Training at the Romanian Academy of Science," International Technology for Development, 10(1), 105-121 (January 2001). 8 Jurich, Sonia. “Before the E-mail there was the P-mail: Distance Learning by Postal Correspondence.” TechKnowLogia, September/October 1999. http://www.techknowlogia.org 9 Bosch, Andrea. “Interactive Radio Instruction: Twenty-three Years of Improving Educational Quality,” Education and Technology Technical Notes Series, Vol. 2, No. 1, World Bank, 1997. Dock, Alan & John, Helwig (eds.). “Interactive Radio Instruction: Impact, Sustainability, and Future Directions,” World Bank (Education and Technology Team)/USAID (EDC). Education and Technology Technical Notes Series, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1999. 10 UNESCO—Radio and Television Receivers. http://unescostat.unesco.org/en/stats/stats0.htm 11 1 Conclusions China approach as an exemplar. Distance Learning is destined to become a major contributor in the implementation of new models of teaching, worldwide. The Chinese experience may be highly valuable as a pointer toward the ideal approach. China has made effective, sequential use of all the predecessor Distance Learning methodologies, from correspondence courses to radio, TV, CDROM, Internet and World Wide Web and is poised to leverage that experience into a significant use of virtual universities. This suggests several points that may be appropriate for developing countries that are not as successful so far as China has been. Move slowly up the technology curve. The example of virtual universities trying to succeed in Africa in spite of the severely limited Internet technology infrastructure is a reminder that the predecessor Distance Learning technologies need to be mastered and ramped up before attempting to leap to higher technology levels Invest more in people than in technology. In developing countries the budget allocations often are tilted toward equipment, infrastructure and content. A higher overall yield is possible if the major investment is in facilitating users to become fully indoctrinated and conversant with the ICT milieu, thereby assuring the highest return on technology investments. Place strategy before structure. Often the acquisition of a technology comes before the rational process of planning for its use. A maxim taught in business schools is that the structural decisions, like buying teleconferencing facilities, should be preceded by a strategic agenda, which can result in more rational and efficient use of any technology. Such a process would probably deter the early implementation of a virtual university in a poor country until there had been much more careful migration up the technology curve. Rewick, Jennifer, “Off Campus: Private Virtual Universities challenge many of the assumptions long held by educators. Their challenge: survival,” Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2001, E-Commerce Section. See http://www.crtvu.edu.cn/, About Us Section Ministry of Education, P.R.C.: Annual Educational Statistics, 1999. http://www.moe.gov.cn 14 China Internet Network Information Center: SemiAnnual Survey Report on Internet Development in China, 01/17/01. http://www.cnnic.net.cn/develst/e-cnnic200101.shtml 13 12 ! 38 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org The Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving from Promise to Practice Highlights from the Report of the Web-based Education Commission By Kathleen Fulton∗ “There is no going back. The traditional classroom has been transformed.” (E-testimony to the Web-based Education Commission) Background on the Commission and Its Process In late 1998, the U.S. Congress established the Web-based Education Commission. Under the leadership of the Commission Chair, Bob Kerrey, then Senator of Nebraska and Vice Chair Johnny Isakson, Representative of Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, the bipartisan sixteen member Commission set out to discover how the Internet is being used to enhance learning opportunity for all learners from prekindergarten through high school, at postsecondary colleges and universities, and in corporate training. While the focus was national, the lessons are global. Supported by a staff of four, the Commission identified a set of core issues to study: technology trends, costs, access and equity, pedagogy, distance education, standards and accreditation, web-centered learning institutions, instructional and teacher training, adult learning, disabled learners, regulatory and institutional barriers, marketplace stability, and data collection needs. The Commission solicited input in both traditional and unique ways. In addition to meeting with stakeholders and inviting experts to testify at five national hearings held on Capitol Hill and around the U.S., the Commission expanded its outreach through an open solicitation of “e-testimony” through the Commission website: www.webcommission.org. Through these combined processes, over two hundred twenty five (225) pieces of testimony were submitted to the Commission from a wide variety of stakeholders—educators, policymakers, business leaders, content developers, corporate trainers, researchers, parents, and students. This testimony formed the backbone of the Commission’s report, which was released on December 19, 2000. The report, The Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving from Promise to Practice, as well as every piece of live and e-testimony, is available on the website. Summary of Report Findings The Internet may be the most transformative technology in history, reshaping business, media, medicine and social interactions in profound ways. But for all its power, it is just now being tapped to transform education. It has the power to customize learning to the needs of each learner, building on strengths, targeting weaknesses, and evaluating progress. In a similar way, the Internet has the power to disaggregate and distribute educational services in ways that can reshape all existing learning institutions. We finally possess the power to school the illiterate, to bring job training to the unskilled, to open a universe of wondrous images and knowledge to millions of needy children, and to enrich the understanding of the lifelong learner. The good news is that new broadband technology will soon bring us closer than we ever thought possible to making learning--of all kinds, at all levels, any time, any place, any pace-- a practical reality for every man, woman and child. The bad news is that millions of Americans still cannot access the Internet and do not understand how to use it to reach the web of knowledge it provides. To assess the real magnitude of the opportunity before us, one need only look to the private sector. The investments made by U.S. businesses in technology and training, vast as they are, are dwarfed by their results—a one-third increase in national productivity. The many and varied programs represented at the Web-based Education Commission’s national hearings and via online testimony suggest that technology and training, properly applied, could lead to similarly strong productivity gains in education. This potential will only grow as broadband technology greatly enhances the power of that technology. ! 39 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Converging Technical and Social Forces Driving Change • Broadband access will soon be possible through a variety of sources—some of which will be untethered, small, special purpose appliances, linked to powerful networks—offering the possibility of affordable computing power to learners anytime, anyplace. This broadband experience will not be just a faster Internet. It will replace the sequential communications of email with the concurrent dialogue of instant messaging. It will have a vivid, immediate, interactive quality that will make the Internet look and feel like a whole new media. New learning tools and content will make it possible to build skills and increase understanding in ways that we are just beginning to plumb. Tools for literacy, computation, analysis, visualization, design, and collaboration, when combined with rich content, can impart knowledge in new ways. New sources of content and expertise make original sources, specialized databases, comprehensive libraries, and experts accessible in formats matched to a learner’s cognitive level, learning style, interests, and culture. New players are entering the educational arena, expanding the system in ways that will bring about vastly enhanced or entirely new educational services. We foresee a highly differentiated educational system that will address the needs of all types of learners in all types of environments. • New types of learning communities provide continuing support and improve communication between school and home, educators and learners, experts and novices, as well as between learners. • These services and such communities are not a matter of science fiction. As described in the testimony before the Web Commission, they are the emerging realities of education in early 21st Century America, and their implications are global. We found that: The need for a new learning model is there. Today’s education is built on an agrarian model that worked for the founding years of a nation of farmers, foresters, and fishermen. It took on elements of the industrial revolution—factory line classes, assembly line curriculum, and teacher foremen—that worked for the needs of the 1900’s. But we must use new designs to create the knowledge workers of our 21st century. The market is there. Business is poised to support education with powerful Internet solutions. Education presents a strong market that drives the innovation of continuing products, tools, and applications that can benefit learners across the spectrum. And e-education represents a major area of business opportunity. • • E-Learning is Big Business • • • • Education and training is the second largest sector of the U.S. economy. At approximately $815 billion, it represents the nation’s second largest expenditure, behind healthcare. The education market currently represents approximately 9% of the gross domestic product. 1 The K-12 e-learning market is estimated at $1.3 billion and is expected to grow to $6.9 billion in 2003.2 The post-secondary online market is estimated at $1.2 billion and it is expected to grow to $7 billion by 2003.3 The U.S. corporate e-learning market is estimated at $1.1 billion and it is expected to grow to $11.4 billion by 2003. The global market for e-learning is estimated at $300 billion and is expected to grow to $365 billion by 2003.4 Venture capital funding in knowledge enterprises amounted to over $3 billion since January 1999 or about triple the total invested in the previous nine years.5 ! 40 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org The global economy is there. A growing world economy can create a strong and lasting demand over the Internet for skilled workers. At the same time, the demands for continuing training in this economy are huge. Workforce Development in an Information Economy • • • • • Skilled jobs now represent 85% of all jobs.6 Between 1998 and 2008 more than 2 million new skilled information technology workers will be needed to fill newly created jobs and to replace workers leaving the field.7 By 2006 nearly half of all workers will be employed in industries that produce or intensively use information technology products and services.8 There is a shortage of skilled workers in the U.S. today. In 1999 nearly 720,000 IT positions went unfilled.9 The demand for high tech labor in California’s “Silicon Valley” alone is fully one third greater than the current high tech workforce in the U.S. overall. 10 The need for training in industry is a continuous one. It is estimated that 50% of all employees’ skills become outdated within 3 to 5 years.11 In order to deal with this, corporate training budgets have increased 23.5% between 1994 and 1999.12 Industry has shifted to web-based training for workers. Traditional classroom-based training in corporate training is expected to continue to drop, representing only 64% of all corporate training in 2001.13 Reflecting this new emphasis, the market for web-based corporate learning is expected to reach $11.4 billion by 2003, up form $550 million in 1998.14 There is a huge boom in corporate universities. In the last thirteen years, the number of companies that have opened corporate universities grew from 400 to 1,800.15 Today 40% of Fortune 500 companies have established corporate universities16 and, if growth continues at the current rate, the number of corporate universities will exceed the number of traditional universities by the year 2010.17 We saw the shift to e-learning in such major national initiatives as the $600 million program of the U.S. Army, Army University Access Online (http://eARMYU.com). The Army plans to build the largest online educational portal in the world, with the objective of enabling any enlisted Army personnel to earn a postsecondary degree or technical certification, wherever they are stationed or deployed. The Army’s commitment to distance learning will expand the market for online content and courses, creating powerful incentives for development. We found that 84% of four-year colleges are expected to offer distance learning courses in 2002, up from 62% in 1998, and that 2.2 million students are expected to enroll in distributed learning courses, up from 710,000 in 1998.18 While traditional site-based institutions are adding distance learning courses to their offerings, new players are exploiting the burgeoning demand for online educational courses and programs. The market is no longer limited to the students who can come to campus. With 15 million students enrolled in higher education in the U.S., and another 84 million students enrolled in higher education around the world19, there is a substantial market for bringing courses to the students, rather than students to the courses. Some online providers are offshoots of existing public institutions, while others are private institutions funded through public companies. Still others are “born on the Web” virtual institutions that leverage the power of the Internet and oper- ate entirely online. However structured, these virtual universities offer students around the world access to postsecondary and graduate level educational resources anytime, anywhere, at any stage in life. Among those we profiled are UNext’s Cardean University (http://www.unext.com/), the Concord University School of Law (http://www.concordlawschool.com/), OnlineLearning.net (http://www.onlinelearning.net/), and the University of Phoenix Online program (http://www.phoenix.edu/). We also learned of unique partnerships between industry and higher education to provide workforce learning opportunities, like Pace University’s partnership with the telecommunications industry in the National Coalition for Telecommunications Education and Learning, (NACTEL), (http://www.nactel.org). But we also heard there is a long way to go, especially in assuring that quality web-based education reaches learners of all ages, in all economic conditions and locations. For American education to benefit from the power of the World Wide Web, many new connections need to be made. Changes in policies and priories will become more acute as this technology matures. We heard a need for: • Powerful new Internet resources, especially broadband access that is widely and equitably available and affordable for all learners; • Continuous, relevant training and support for educators and administrators at all levels; ! 41 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org • • • • • New research on how people learn in the Internet age; High quality online educational content that is widely available and meets the highest standards of educational excellence; Relief from outdated regulations that impede instructional innovation in favor of approaches that embrace anytime, anywhere, any pace learning; Safeguards to protect online learners and ensure their privacy, especially that of young children; and And sustained funding—via traditional and new sources—that is adequate to the challenges at hand. Endnotes ∗ Kathleen Fulton served as the Project Director for the Webbased Education Commission. She spent ten years with the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, conducting assessments of technology and education. Prior to coming to the Web Commission, she was Associate Director for the Center for Learning and Educational Technology in the College of Education at the University of Maryland. She can be reached at
[email protected] 1 Commission Recommendations The web-based Education Commission urges the new Congress and Administration to embrace an “e-learning” agenda as a centerpiece of the nation’s federal education policy. Specifically, the Commission calls on: • • • • • Federal and state governments to make the extension of broadband access for all learners a central goal of telecommunications policy; Policymakers at all levels to work with educational institutions and the private sector to support the continuous growth of educators through the use of technology; The Federal government to create a comprehensive research, development, and innovation framework for learning technology; The public and private sectors to join forces in developing high quality content and applications for online learning; Congress, the U.S. Department of Education, and state and regional education funding and regulatory barriers that block full learner access to online learning resources, courses, and programs while ensuring accountability of taxpayer dollars; The education community and parents, working with the private sector, to develop and adopt appropriate privacy and protection safeguards to assure that learners of all ages are not exploited while participating in learning activities; and The federal government, states, localities, and the private sector to adequately fund web-based learning opportunity. • • We all have a role to play. It is time we collectively move the power of the Internet for learning from promise to practice. Capelli, Gregory, Scott Wilson, and Michael Husman. Endnote 31, p. 8. E-Learning: Power for the Knowledge Economy. Credit Suisse. First Boston Corporation. 2000. Endnote 31, p. 8 2 Moe, Michael and Henry Blodgett. The Knowledge Web. p. 70. Merrill Lynch & Co., Global Securities Research & Economics Group, Global Fundamental Equity Research Department. 2000. 3 Ibid. p. 171. 4 Ibid, p. 229. 5 Ibid, p. 4. 6 Meister, Jeanne, Corporate University Xchange, Inc. Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission, September 15, 2000. http://www.webcommission.org/directory. 7 United States. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. “BLS projections to 2008: A Summary”. Bowman, Charles. Monthly Labor Review. November 1999, vol. 122, No. 11. http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1999/11/contents.htm 8 United States. Department of Commerce (1999). The Emerging Digital Economy II, Henry, David, Patricia Buckley, Gurmukh Gill, Sandra Cooke, Jess Dumagan, Dennis Pastore, and Susan LaPorte. Washington, D.C. 1999. http://www.ecommerce.gov/ede/ede2.pdf 9 Moe and Blodgett, op. cit., endnote 2, p. 4. 10 Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, Inc. Workforce Study: An Analysis of the Workforce Gap in Silicon Valley. 1999. http://www.jointventure.org/initiatives/edt/work_gap/workga p.html. 11 Moe and Blodgett, op. cit., endnote 2, p. 229. 12 Capelli, Wilson, and Husman op. cit, endnote 1, p. 127. 13 Meister, Jeanne. op. cit., endnote 6. 14 Moe and Blodgett, op. cit., endnote 2, p. 229. 15 Meister, Jeanne, op. cit., endnote 6. 16 Moe and Blodgett, op. cit., endnote 2, p. 230. 17 Meister, Jeanne, op. cit., endnote 6. 18 Moe and Blodgett, endnote 2, p. 172. 19 United States. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2000). The Condition of Education 2000, NCES 2000-602. Washington, DC. 2000. ! 42 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Business, Corporate Universities and E-Learning By John Y. Jones* Jeanne Meister, a leading expert in corporate education, defines a corporate university as “the strategic umbrella for developing and educating employees, customers, and suppliers in order to meet an organization’s business strategies.”1 Its purpose is to provide company-related business education for individuals affiliated with the business and to foster a shared company vision. There are several reasons why a growing number of companies are establishing their own corporate university. It can enhance productivity, profits, and global competitiveness as workers apply their education to the marketplace. It can provide added incentives for employees to stay where they are rather than leave for a rival company or even another country. It may also become a profitable division, offering courses to the public for a fee and bringing prestige to the company. In 1927, General Motors was the first company in North America to develop its own educational division, calling it the General Motors Engineering and Management Institute (GMI).2 It was a novel idea that soon caught on with other firms, although the focus for much of the twentieth century was just on grooming future managers. In addition, “classes were not typically aligned with overall business plans but were consistently reactive to observed problems in the workplace.”3 The modern incarnation of the corporate university began in 1961 with McDonald’s “Hamburger University,” a facility designed to prepare McDonald’s executives and franchisees for running the now-famous fast-food restaurants.4 The idea behind Hamburger University was simple: to retain a sense of company unity through instilling corporate values and teaching basic business skills to all employees. In this way, the corporate university played a direct role in helping expand McDonald’s influence worldwide. Hamburger University now has branches in England, Japan, Germany and Australia.5 The fundamental difference between the corporate training of old and corporate university education of today is that training is reactive to past or current issues, while education is proactive, anticipating and shaping the future. A corporate university also differs in its scope, educating not just employees but people throughout the company’s “value chain,” such as suppliers and customers.6 Although successful companies have always carried on with a corporate vision of how the future would be, corporate universities have become the means through which that vision is shared with others. A corporate university today is in a favorable position in relation to traditional universities. Barley writes that the corporate university’s “most powerful accomplishment is the fact that the corporate university has encouraged higher education and business to rethink their existing relationships.”7 Some companies are even creating entire degree programs in cooperation with traditional universities,8 enhancing both their educational opportunities and prestige, both of which also help to retain top employees. Structuring University a Corporate Jeanne Meister notes that, in order to set up a corporate university, a company must do several things: form a governance system that includes active participation by the CEO; create a vision of the future that is easy to communicate to others; ascertain who the students will be (i.e. employees, suppliers, customers, and/or the general public); establish the scope of the educational program; create educational products and services; select learning partners such as e-learning companies or universities; develop a technology strategy to determine how the educational material will be delivered; and create a measurement system that reflects the effectiveness of the education on individual performance.9 Corporate university faculty is not just traditional academic Ph.D.s who introduce theory and research. Faculty also includes managers and supervisors who can teach first-hand from their own experiences and share anecdotal information with junior employees that will help them succeed and excel in their jobs. Curricula are as diverse as the corporations served, but many successful companies base their corporate curricula on the three C’s: “developing Corporate citizenship, providing a Contextual framework to the company, and building Core workplace competencies among employees.”10 • The first “C,” developing Corporate citizenship, involves building a sense of community among employees so that they “buy into” the company. The corporate university helps build Corporate citizenship by teaching ! 43 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org • • employees about the company’s values and mission, and by fostering a sense of responsibility for the future of the company. The second “C,” the Contextual framework, provides employees with the basic knowledge of their company’s work, products, competition, and “how to learn from the best practices of world-class companies that determine standards of excellence within an industry.” The third “C,” Core competencies, comprises the skills necessary to compete in the company’s marketplace. These skills include learning to communicate well with others, thinking creatively, and developing technological and global business literacy. Technology Enhancement While the traditional means for delivering a corporate education has been in the classroom, many companies are now embracing the Internet as a medium of instruction because it offers many advantages over face-to-face teaching. A web-based system of instruction allows centralized coordination but dispersed learning, can be adapted to each individual’s learning needs, can provide numerous resources without taking space on a computer’s hard drive, and is more convenient to incorporate into the workday than traditional classroom instruction.11 It also usually cuts costs, often dramatically, when personnel otherwise would have to travel to another city for the instruction. Not only big companies can benefit from corporate universities. Verifone, a company of about 2,500 employees in regional offices of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australia, operates its own university. Verifone University created its curriculum using in-house experts when possible and contractors when necessary. They made all course information available on each employee’s computer or at office-based learning centers, and are now moving towards making all education available on company web sites. Verifone encourage employees to take charge of their own education, going so far as to provide subsidies for employees’ home computer purchases. A company can collaborate with other local or national businesses, collaborate with public or private institutions of higher education, or outsource some of the educational functions to e-learning training companies. These solutions, however, are not without potential problems. Collaborating with other businesses can put a company in the position of having to share its business plans and trade secrets with competitors and risk losing the uniqueness of its corporate culture when forming classes with other firms. Government regulations and red tape can complicate working with a public institution of higher education, while a private university may charge high fees. Outsourcing work to an e-learning provider requires careful shopping to assure that high quality education is provided. As in any field, some commercial elearning is of low quality and there has been some fraud in this field. See the article, “E-Learning Buyer’s Guide” in this issue for more advice on searching for good e-learning providers. Some of the costs can also be recouped by charging a nominal fee to employees or by offering classes to the public or to other businesses on a fee-for-service basis. An Australian report notes that anywhere from 19-28% of corporate universities in the United States reported receiving external revenue from students who were not direct company employees.14 Jeff Titchenal of TrainingWORKS writes that a company can market its corporate university, as another revenuegenerating product that can even be profitable. Regardless of how a company sets up its corporate university, “if you’re going to do it right, it’s going to cost you money.”15 But, Titchenal observes, “if your training programs meet your company’s business goals, the corporate university will pay for itself.”16 Developing a corporate university can be an expensive process, however, and one should carefully study company needs and future trends before deciding to do so. Government Involvement To date, Government involvement has played little role in the functioning of corporate universities. There are, however, several roles governments could play in fostering corporate universities. Government grants might be provided to help companies establish corporate universities that are expected to contribute to expansion of the national economy. This is especially applicable to scientific, technical, industrial, or medical companies. Governments could offer tax credits for the same purposes. Traditional colleges and universities could be rewarded for forming partnerships with corporate universities. Finally, governments might set up technicalassistance organizations that would share information and Costs and E-Learning Providers As of this writing, there are a variety of estimates regarding the costs for developing, implementing, and maintaining a corporate university. The cost of attending a corporate university education is usually free to employees. Large U.S. corporations are estimated to spend an average of $10-12 million, or about 2.2% of the payroll on their corporate universities.12 13 Such figures are often unrealistically high for smaller companies, but there are several ways in which these high costs can be reduced. ! 44 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org provide consultation on the establishment and operation of corporate universities. tions and their URL’s, please consult the “WorthwhileWebs” article in this issue. Resources Two professional associations may be of assistance to those establishing corporate universities. The American Society for Training and Development is a professional association of corporate education officers and consultants. The European Consortium for the Learning Organisation is a network of business and academic professionals that collaborate on learning. There is now a journal, Corporate University Review.17 Several websites now index e-learning firms, such as L-Guide; the Clearinghouse for Training, Education, and Development; and EdSurf. For-profit firms have also sprung up to consult and provide services in this new field. These include the Corporate University Xchange, The Corporate University, The Virtual Corporate University Extension, Woohoo Inc., and McGraw-Hill. For a description of these organiza- Conclusion The underlying foundation of a successful corporate university involves a number of factors: the company’s commitment to its business ideals, its emphasis on education as a means of providing both guidance and inspiration, and its willingness to view employees as its most valuable resource. Since the concept is relatively new, the long-term benefits for developing a corporate university are still little known. Nevertheless, paired with the Internet, corporate education appears to have great potential for boosting productivity and helping companies in developing countries compete in the global marketplace. When developing a corporate university, however, companies must contend with high start-up costs and the unregulated e-learning market, and aligning education with their vision of the future. Although governments are currently playing little role in corporate universities, governments of developing countries may wish to consider such a role. Implemented skillfully, a corporate university may be just what a business needs to succeed in the global economy. * John Yoshito Jones is a Master’s Degree student and graduate assistant in the Education Policy Program at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. 1 2 Meister, J.C. (1998) Corporate Universities: Lessons in Building a World-Class Workforce. McGraw-Hill: New York, NY. Barley, K.L. (1998) Adult Learning in the Workplace: A Conceptualization and Model of the Corporate University. Master’s Thesis, Virginia Polytechnic and State University. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-3239817336/unrestricted/thesis.pdf 3 Ibid. 4 Schugurensky, D. (2000) McDonald’s starts the first corporate university. http://fcis.oise.utoronto.ca/~daniel_schugurensky/assignment1/1961mcdonalds.html 5 Ibid. 6 Meister, J.C. (1998) Corporate Universities: Lessons in Building a World-Class Workforce. McGraw-Hill: New York, NY 7 Barley, K.L. (1998) Adult Learning in the Workplace: A Conceptualization and Model of the Corporate University. Master’s Thesis, Virginia Polytechnic and State University. 8 Chase, N. (1998) Lessons from the corporate university. Quality Magazine http://www.qualitymag.com/articles/1998/jun98/0698tt.html 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid. 12 Dubin, C.H. (1999) The Mountain Comes to Mohammed. Food Distributor http://www.fdi.org/fdimag/990404sidmtn.html 13 Meister, J.C. (1998) Corporate Universities: Lessons in Building a World-Class Workforce. McGraw-Hill: New York, NY 14 The Business of Borderless Education http://www.deet.gov.au/archive/highered/eippubs/eip00_3/chp2.pdf 15 (2001) Learning from a distance. Business First of Buffalo Online 16 Titchenal, J. Starting a Corporate University. http://www.trainingworks.org/pdf/corpuniversities.pdf 17 This journal is also available online at: http://www.traininguniversity.com/ ! 45 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Envi E-Learning Collaborative Environments The Role of the IIn structor in n Lucio Teles, Stacy Ashton, Tracy Roberts, Irina Tzoneva Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada Abstract: In online classrooms the messages the instructor posts are the avenue de through which they fulfill their role in the online classroom. This paper d e scribes the role of instructors in e-learning environments. We have developed a re coding scheme to capture the range and variety of instructional acts as r e confer vealed in the content of instructor postings to an asynchronous online confe r ence. Multiple offerings of three different online post-secondary courses (Fine Arts, Statistics, and Psychiatric Nursing) are analyzed using a modified version of Consensual Qualitative Research. A description of instructors’ online acts in devel four categories (Pedagogical, Managerial, Technical, and Social) was deve l oped and presented to an online conference of experienced online instructors for review. We also investigated the distribution of Pedagogical, Managerial, Social, and Technical activities across different courses over time and found that instructor postings contained more Pedagogical and Managerial codes than Social and Technical codes, and this occurred equally at all stages in the course. In addition, we found that although the number of student postings rose with the number of students in the course, the number of instructor postings con remained co n stant. In the past decade the implementation of e-learning in education and the corporate sector has led to a proliferation of technologies aimed at supporting virtual learning. From email to real-time chat rooms to asynchronous conferencing software, the Web has played a large role in the computerization of the classroom, especially in post-secondary institutions. Much of the early research into this trend focused on describing the new technology, and on hailing the potential of these advances to foster learning environments where students can collaborate with one another and take on increased responsibility for their own learning (Feenberg, 1989; Harasim, Hiltz, Teles & Turoff, 1995; Hiltz, 1994; Kerr, 1986; Mason & Kaye, 1989; Moore & Kearsley, 1995). Although much of the rhetoric around online classrooms focuses on collaboration, it is important to point out that online classrooms are not necessarily collaborative in nature. McCabe (1998), Berge (1996) and Eastmond (1995) all offer cases of online classrooms modeled on traditional, noncollaborative educational models. In order to investigate the role of instructors who are using collaborative online environments as part of their teaching we have chosen to study courses in which student participation in collaborative online discussions and projects was a significant component of the student’s experience and assessment in the course. The courses selected for the research were also delivered entirely online. In this study we provide an in-depth investigation of the kinds of activities. It begins with a review of the literature describing the key characteristics of collaborative online environments, and the implications of these characteristics for the role of the online instructor. ! 46 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Characteristics of Collaborative Online Environments A variety of characteristics have been identified in the literature concerning collaborative online classrooms. Harasim et al. (1995) and Warschauer (1997) argue that online classrooms hold great potential for collaborative educational approaches because they feature many-to-many communication, place and time independence, and computer-mediated communication (CMC). These characteristics point to several critical focus areas in the investigation of the role of the instructor in the online environment: changes in the balance of student-instructor participation; a move towards active collaborative learning; changes in the teaching role towards increasing facilitation versus direct instruction. Technical: The technical role involves choosing appropriate software to meet specific learning goals, and assisting students to become competent and comfortable users of the chosen software. Research Questions and Methodology The present research study was designed to explore the application of Berge’s (1995, 1996) four role dimensions to actual online collaborative classroom environments. We were interested in the specific behaviors that occurred in each of the four role dimensions, as well as the distribution of the roles across members of the online classroom and over time. The specific questions posed in this research are: 1. What are the subcategories for each of the four roles of the online instructor: pedagogical, managerial, social, and technical? 2. How does the relative proportion of student-instructor participation rate change during the course, both in overall number of instructor postings, and types of roles enacted in the postings? 3. How does the relative proportion of instructional roles change from one course offering to the next, both in overall number and types of roles enacted in postings? Instructor Roles in E-Learning Environments In the present research, Berge’s instructors roles - pedagogical, managerial, social, and technical - have been used as a starting point to analyze instructor postings in online settings, and to help organize the literature on the role of the online teacher (Berge 1995, 1996). Pedagogical: The pedagogical role encompasses everything done to support the learning process of individual students or working groups. Based on the application of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory to an online course for pre-service teachers, Bonk, Daytner, Daytner, Dennen, and Malikowski (1999) provide a breakdown of ways instructors can use instruction and facilitation during online discussions. The following role behaviors fall clearly into the dimension of pedagogical functions: direct instruction; direct questioning; providing modeling or examples; giving advice or suggestions; fostering student reflection or self-awareness; pushing students to explore other sources of information; prompting students to explain or elaborate on their ideas; providing feedback or praise; cognitive task structuring; 'weaving' students’ contributions into a single summary in order to capture and re-focus students on the essence of ongoing or completed discussions (Harasim et al., 1995). Managerial. The managerial role refers to activities designed to make the course run smoothly at an administrative level. Management roles fall into three categories: managing individual students; managing discussion and working groups; managing course functions. Social: The lack of nonverbal signals and social context cues means that in online classrooms, an education-ready atmosphere is built entirely from virtual tools and interactions. Walther (1996) developed a three-level model of the social effects of computer-mediated communication (CMC) focusing on impersonal, interpersonal and hyperpersonal effects. Transcript Analysis Methodology The primary methodology chosen for this study was transcript analysis of instructor postings to online conferences in classes where a significant portion of class time and grade was rooted in collaborative activity. Analysis of postings was limited to the instructors, tutor markers, and technical support staff. Because we did not have permission to view student postings, these postings were not included as part of our body of data, and all references to students that came up in the analyzed postings were replaced with numbers before analysis began. Consensual Qualitative Research Since a large part of our analysis involved developing a framework of instructional behaviors in each of Berge’s four role areas, we adopted a modified version of the Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) methodology (Hill, Thompson, Williams, 1997). The CQR process involved developing categories for broad domains derived from a review of the literature in order to provide a loose conceptual framework or “start list” that allowed us to cluster data relevant to the research issue into topic areas. Our start list was developed to ensure that we attended to support functions in the online classroom, as well as to direct teaching. Based on a framework developed by Berge (1995), two researchers independently coded instructor postings from one of the Dancing courses into the four general instructional roles: Pedagogical, ! 47 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Managerial, Social, and Technical. We used NUDIST4 (Non-numerical Unstructured Data by Indexing, Searching and Theorizing, Version 4), a qualitative research software program, to assist us in organizing the transcript data into subcategories, so that we can develop a taxonomy of the specific instructional actions within each of the four instructional roles. In order to get feedback on our framework of instructional roles and behaviors, we organized an online conference to present preliminary findings to a group of experienced online instructors. Fifty-three participants joined the discussion. Of these, 41 were “readers” only and did not contribute to the discussion and 12 were active participants and generated 141 messages in a highly interactive online seminar. The two research assistants working in data analysis independently developed a coding scheme that categorized the abstracted postings into a set of the core instructional actions within each instructional role. The final framework of instructional behavior, presented below, was developed through a reflexive and reiterative process of coming to consensus on how the posting abstracts best fit together into core ideas that represented the data. Inter-rater reliability between the two coders ranged from 66.5% to 96.2%, depending on the course. Since over 950 postings were coded, a significant proportion of the interrater variance was thought to be rooted in simple coding fatigue. As the coders were re-visiting the data, the dominant reason for a disagreement was that one or the other of the coders had overlooked a clear example of one of the roles in action. Only 10% of the codes that were disagreed upon sparked serious discussion in our consensus meetings. All coding was discussed to consensus. In this course, students were introduced to the virtual body and its vast creative potential in cyberspace. Students learned Life Forms, a software for 3-D human figure animation, to analyze and create simulations of human dance sequences. Two offerings of this course were analyzed. In the first offering, there were 28 students and in the second there were 19. Collaboration and online discussion among students were major features of both offerings of this course. Students carried out weekly topic discussions based on the course readings in an online “Topics” conference, which were summarized and posted by the tutor marker at the end of each topic. Life Forms animation issues were discussed in an “Animation” conference. A busy “Café” conference provided a virtual place for casual, social chat. In addition, students worked in assigned pairs to create, perform and critique animated dance sequences, which also promoted high levels of online interaction. Seventy percent of the course grade required some form of online discussion or peer collaboration. Course 2: Introduction to Statistics (referred to as STAT) Statistics was a first year undergraduate course designed to introduce students to statistical tools and concepts used to collect and analyze data. Three offerings of this course were analyzed, all of which were taught by the same instructor and tutor marker. The first offering of the course enrolled 64 students, the second, 30 students, and the third, 24 students. Collaboration consisted of topic discussions in small groups of four to five students, as well as group assignments that were submitted to the tutor marker every two weeks. The students themselves, on a rotating basis moderated group discussion. Group submissions and participation made up 25% of the students' final grade. Course 3: Community Concepts for Psychiatric Nursing (Nursing also referred to as PNUR) This course was offered to students enrolled in an advanced diploma program in psychiatric nursing. Students analyzed the context of psychiatric nursing in the community from a systems theory perspective. Collaboration was built into the course in the ongoing discussions about course topics, and through peer feedback on the major project required for the course. Two offerings of this course were analyzed, both of which were taught by the same instructor, who worked without a teaching assistant. There were five students enrolled in the first course, and nine in the second. Most of the students in this course were already working as psychiatric nurses, and thus brought a great deal of experience to the course. Courses Selected for Data Collection We chose to study multiple offerings of three courses, so that we could track changes in role distribution as the instructor gained more experience with their online classroom. Many of the case studies reported in the literature are based on firsttime online instructors piloting a new course (e.g., Garland, Wang & Teles, 1999; Latting, 1994; Slatin, 1992). We wanted to examine the changes that occur as instructors become more comfortable with the technology and course content. The three courses were selected to represent a diverse range of topic areas and level of student: a virtual dance course for undergraduate students, a first-year undergraduate statistics course, and a graduate course in psychiatric nursing. Course 1: Dancing in Cyberspace (referred to as FPA – Faculty of Performing Arts) Results and Discussion The results from our research show the distribution of the subcategories of the online instructor’s roles, the studentinstructor participation rate, and the relative proportion of instructional roles. ! 48 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org 1. Subcategories of the four roles of the online instructor The following subcategories were identified for each of the four roles of the online instructor: • Pedagogical: offering feedback; giving instructions; giving information; opinions/preferences/advice; questioning; summarizing student comment; referring to outside sources. Managerial: coordinating assignments; coordinating discussion; coordinating course. Social: empathy; interpersonal outreach; metacommunication; humor. • Technical: user issues; system issue; technical issue is unclear (symptoms of problems are reported without a clear idea of the cause (i.e., user or system). • • 2. Participation: student vs. instructor The relative student-instructor participation rate followed the same trend identified by earlier researchers: instructor postings accounted for as little as 3% of postings to conferences in one of the Statistics courses, to as high as 28% in the smaller graduate Nursing course. These correlations show that although the number of student postings rises as the number of students in the course rises, the number of instructor postings does not. Number and percentage of student and instructor postings by course Class Course size FPA 97 28 FPA 98 19 PNUR 97 5 PNUR 99 9 STATS 97-3 64 STATS 98-1 30 STATS 98-2 24 Total Student postings 783 754 243 483 1,885 463 922 5533 Instructor postings 202 99 61 189 188 64 32 835 Total postings 985 853 304 672 2,073 527 954 6368 % student postings 79% 88% 80% 72% 91% 88% 97% % instructor postings 21% 12% 20% 28% 9% 12% 3% 3. Relative proportion of instructional roles Several trends emerged in our analysis of the distribution of roles by course offering. In all courses, instructor postings contained more Pedagogical and Managerial codes than So- cial and Technical codes. This was most striking in the three Statistics offerings, in which 82%, 83% and 96% of the instructional behavior was pedagogical or managerial in nature. Percentage distribution of codes by course offering STAT 97-3 STAT 98-1 STAT 98-2 PNUR 97 PNUR 99 FPA 97 FPA 98 Pedagogical Managerial Social Technical Total 51.5% 30.8% 8.9% 8.9% 100.0% 55.8% 27.9% 8.5% 7.8% 100.0% 76.5% 19.1% 2.9% 1.5% 100.0% 30.8% 38.9% 24.3% 6.1% 100.0% 23.5% 46.6% 21.7% 8.3% 100.0% 44.3% 32.3% 14.4% 15.3% 100.0% 34.3% 42.9% 22.2% 13.0% 100.0% In many cases, the pattern of pedagogical and managerial codes being dominant over social and technical codes occurred equally at all stages of the course. In addition, more managerial codes appeared at the early stages of courses that had been offered more than once, usually accompanied by a shift of pedagogical activity into the middle and late stages of the course. This suggests that more managerial issues were anticipated and dealt with earlier in the course as instructors gained online experience. ! 49 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Conclusions, Limitations, And Future Directions Exploring instructor roles and instructional activities in this way gave us a window into the amount of time instructors spend fulfilling various roles and activities. One finding is that instructors spend the bulk of their managerial time coordinating the receipt of assignments. Concerns about viruses and incompatible software can make the apparently simple action of handing in an assignment quite complex in an online classroom. Analysis of these courses has also shed light on how instructors distribute role functions between themselves and instructor adjuncts such as tutor markers or teaching assistants. Cross-analysis of the seven courses showed some commonalties in the ways instructors organize their classrooms. Several limitations of this research will require additional work in this area. First of all, transcript analysis does not capture the entirety of the online classroom. Several of the instructors studied in this research stated that a significant amount of student-instructor contact occurred outside the online conference, either through face-to-face office hours or private e-mail. Thus, only a partial picture of the role breakdown and activities of instructors is possible through transcript analysis that focuses on the content of class conferences. In addition, a great deal of preparation and organizational maintenance occurs in an online course which is also not captured in the online conferences: developing lesson plans and assignments, marking, meeting with teaching assistants, and other activities. In order to examine the activities of the online instructor as a total package, data would need to be collected on these other aspects of online instruction as well. Eastmond, D.V. (1995). Alone but together: Adult distance conferencing through computer conferencing. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton. Feenberg, A. (1989). The written world: On the theory and practice of computer conferencing. In R. Mason and A. Kaye (Eds.). Mindweave: Communication, computers, and distance education (pp. 22-39). Oxford: Pergamon Press. Garland, I., Wang, X., & Teles, L. (1999) Fostering creativity through cross-disciplinary collaboration in an online dance course. Paper presented at the Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Conference, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, December. Harasim, L., Hiltz, S.R., Teles, L., & Turoff, M. (1995). Learning networks. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Hill, C.E., Thompson, B.J., Williams, E.N. (1997). A guide to conducting consensual qualitative research. The Counselling Psychologist, 25(4), 517–572. Hiltz, S.R. (1994). The virtual classroom: Learning without limits via computer networks. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corp. Kerr, E.B. (1986). Electronic leadership: A guide to moderating on-line conferences. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 29, 12–18. Latting, J.K. (1994). Diffusion of computer-mediated communication in a graduate social work class: Lessons from “the class from hell.” Computers in Human Services, 10(3), 21–45. Mason, R. & Kaye, A. (1989). Mindweave: communication, computers, and distance education. Oxford: Pergamon Press. McCabe, M.F. (1998). Lessons from the field: Computer conferencing in higher education. Journal of Information Technology for Teacher Education. 7(1), 71–87. Moore, M.G. & Kearsley, G. (1995). Distance education: A systems view. Belmont, Wadsworth Publishing. Slatin, J.M. (1992). Is there a class in this text? Creating knowledge in the electronic classroom. In E. Barrett (Ed.) Sociomedia: Multimedia, hypermedia, and the social construction of knowledge (pp. 27–52). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Walther, J.B. (1996). Computer-mediated communication: Impersonal, interpersonal, and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication Research, 23(1), 3–43. Warschauer, M. (1997). Computer-mediated collaborative learning: Theory and practice. The Modern Language Journal, 81(4), 470–481. REFERENCES Berge, Z.L. (1996). Example case studies in postsecondary, online teaching. In G. Hart & J. Mason (Eds.), Proceedings of ‘The Virtual University’ Symposium (pp. 99– 105). Melbourne, Australia, November 21–22. Berge, Z.L. (1995). Facilitating computer conferencing: Recommendations from the field. Educational Technology, 35, 22–30. Bonk, C.J., Daytner, K., Daytner, G., Dennen, V., & Malikowski, S. (1999). Online mentoring of preservice teachers with web-based cases, conversations, and collaboration: Two years in review. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association annual meeting, Montreal, Canada, April. ! 50 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org E-Learning Buyer’s Guide By Gregg Jackson* Shopping for e-learning is like exploring a jungle. There may be great treasures to find, but there are predators ready to pounce on the vulnerable. Some esteemed universities are having their faculty teach regular courses through the Web, but others are creating e-learning enterprises with the intent of maximizing profits with unknown part-time instructors. “Diploma mills” which have long sold fake degrees by mail now are prospering on the Web. Well-respected corporate training organizations are using the Web, but they have been joined by hundreds of dot.com startups with quickly constructed Web sites and limited expertise in training. Both corporate training officers and individual students need to shop with caution. This article discusses four steps for doing so: There 1 Knowing What Is Needed are three important aspects of what is needed—the content of the training, the certification that may accompany it, and the instructional supports. The content of the training includes the knowledge conveyed, the skills developed, and the habits acquired. It should fill identified gaps between current competencies and needed or desired ones. There are several forms of possible certification. These include certificates of completion, skill standards certificates awarded for demonstrated skills, professional certifications awarded after successfully completing a series of courses specified by a professional association, and college or university degrees. Certificates of completion are usually of little value, unless the provider has a reputation for high quality training and performance standards. Skill standard certificates, such as Microsoft Windows NT MCP certificate, are sometimes considered better certification of competencies than college degrees. The bottom end of e-learning instructional supports is old training manuals posted on the Web; the top end includes extensive interaction with renowned professors or with an adaptive tutor who uses artificial intelligence to adjust the instruction to the students prior knowledge and learning progress. If the targeted skills are easy to learn, bottom end supports may be sufficient, but if they are difficult to master, more learning supports will be needed. There are three levels of evaluation—alignment with needs, quality of instruction, and costs. To determine whether the training appears to align well with what is needed, it is best to examining the providers’ Web sites and ask for clarifications by e-mail. To determine the quality of instruction is often a challenge. E-learning institutions will try to provide an appearance of high quality instruction—up-to-date content, widely respected certification, and effective instructional approaches. Some can fulfill the promise and others cannot. Some portals provide apparently objective information and even ratings of courses, but their impartiality is in question. For instance, Peterson.com Distance Learning requires payment of fees for the substantial descriptions on its site. Buyers should review the descriptive material carefully and with a skeptical eye. Look for more than self-promoting generalizations. Check for how the content is selected and how often it is updated. Review the qualifications of the instructors—the certifications or degrees that they hold, their experience in the field, and their experience as teachers. Ascertain with whom the student will interact when he or she has questions, who will guide student discussions, and who will provide feedback on submitted assignments. Sometimes a well-known expert has helped design the course, but other less qualified people actually teach it. Review carefully the nature of the learning supports. Some common supports are: reading and graphical materials, links to related Web sites, self-scoring quizzes, interactive tutoring modules, interactive simulations, e-discussions with other students, collaborative projects with other students, and assignments on which the instructor provides feedback. Many short courses involve no interaction with an instructor. That may be fine to acquire relatively simple knowledge, but make sure the automated instruction allows the learners to go back and review previously completed material. Other courses are mostly automated but have one instructor who is on-call for hundreds of students to answer questions when they are confused. Still Evaluating the Provider’s Training 3 Any good search engine will find several hundred e-learning providers within an hour, but unless the need is for short computer technology skill training, more effort may be needed to identify several potentially suitable providers. There are several Web-based portals that allow more targeted searching. They include America’s Learning Exchange, Elearners.com, L-Guide, and Peterson.com Distance Learning. The URLs and a brief description of each of these organizations are included in this issue’s WorthWhileWebs. Note that some of these portals index not only e-learning courses and programs, but also face-to-face instruction. Search for Providers 2 ! 51 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org others may have considerable interaction with and feedback from an instructor. Expert feedback is essential for mastering complex generative skills such as design work, development of plans, or crafting of policies. The quality of instruction may vary considerably from course to course. That has always been the case within colleges and universities where the faculty operate with considerable autonomy. It will also be the case with some commercial vendors, due to updating of the courses most in demand, the acquisition of other firms and their courseware, and strategic partnerships in which a firm essentially retails training from several different providers. Examples of the latter include www.headlight.com and www.learning.thinq.com. Diploma mills provide college and university degrees within a few weeks or months, with little or no study, and without ascertaining the student’s competencies. They have operated for a century, mostly by mail, and are now moving to the Web. They have impressive names, sometimes including the name of an esteemed institution, such as the “Oxford Global University” (not the same as the Oxford University) and sometimes including “State University” and “National University” within their name, suggesting government sponsorship. Their Web sites are slick. They have an URL that ends with .edu . The diploma mill sites usually include “official” Seals, messages from the president, on-line catalogues of courses, testimonials from satisfied students, and claims of accreditation. The cited accrediting associations are fraudulent or non-existent. An impressive building may be pictured, but usually is not occupied by the institution. Some diploma mills rationalize that they are offering students degrees in recognition of knowledge and skills acquired through their life and work experiences, but then do little to ascertain those experiences. Most use “admissions officers” who are salespeople who earn a commission for each student they enroll. Detecting most diploma mills is fairly easy. Their degrees can be acquired in a few weeks or months, with little or no actual study and assignments, and with little or no effort to assess student competencies. Very simply, they offer students a deal that is too good to be true. The www.brandon-hall.com Web site offers some shopping guidance to corporations that wish to make use of elearning. It appears to be independent, accepting no funding from training providers. Most of the advice is in publications sold through the site - and the publications are expensive. There are several Web sites that offer guidance to students in how to find e-learning and avoid diploma mills. These include www.degree.net, www.pbs.org/als, and www.ed.gov/NLE/USNEI (which is specifically for those outside of the United States who are interested instruction from U.S. higher education institutions). The Global Alliance for Transnational Education (GATE) (www.edugate.org) has established “Principals of Transna- tional Education” and is encouraging education providers that operate across national boundaries to ascribe to, and uphold, these principles. To date, apparently few have been willing to do so. At the “International Organizations” link from the GATE Web site, there is a list of regional, hemispheric, and international organizations concerned about the quality of higher education. Some providers have a demo course that anyone can go through, but there is no way of knowing how similar it is to the instruction that is to be purchased. Some will allow a serious buyer to access a specific course of interest for a short period of time. Finally, some students decide to try one course, and if dissatisfied with it, do not take more from that provider. Similarly, corporate training offices sometimes try out a course or provider with one or two people, before making a major commitment to the provider. E-learning is often priced by the course, but sometimes there are hidden costs. Colleges and universities are notorious for adding application fees, “student fees,” and graduation fees. Certain certifications require independently administered examinations for which there are additional charges. Corporate training institutions may add additional charges for certificates of completion. After carefully deciding on an e-learning provider, there are additional precautions that can further protect one’s investment. Avoid large contractual obligations and arrange to pay as you go. Diploma mills like full payment in advance and usually offer big “discounts” if a student will pay immediately. Even reputable providers may ask for large up-front payments, but many will agree to a series of payments as the student progresses. Corporations should negotiate contracts that specify important aspects of quality and including penalties and escape clauses if the provider does not perform as promised. In some countries, students who pay by credit cards may be exempt from paying for fraudulent services. Protecting the Purchase 4 If you are well-prepared when heading into the jungle of elearning, you have a good chance of surviving and finding valuable treasures. If you go in unprepared, the animals will feast on you for their dinner. * Gregg B. Jackson is Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Education Policy Program at The George Washington University. ! 52 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Development of a Skilled IT Workforce: Strategies, Standards and Resources By Joanne Capper World Links for Development Program, The World Bank Investment in IT Workforce The Internet and the growth of information technologies (IT) are causing a radical restructuring of governments, businesses and education providers, with an increasing trend toward e-commerce and e-learning. The hopes of increased efficiency and the possibility of accessing new markets beyond traditional national or regional boundaries fuel these dramatic changes in large part. Using digital technologies can generate substantial savings. For example, • Banking transaction costs have been reduced from US$1.14 for face-to-face transactions to an average of 1¢ each when conducted on the Internet. • The cost of finding a barrel of oil has been reduced from nearly $10 a barrel in 1991 to under $1 a barrel in 1999 by using 3D seismic technology. • Studies show that telecommuting, working from home, at least one day a month by using electronic links to the office saves U. S. businesses roughly $10,000 annually for a worker earning $44,000. (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas 1999: 11-15) Investments in IT benefit both large and very small companies. For example, the Naushad Trading Company, a Kenyabased crafts company, found that marketing their products on the Internet increased income from US$10,000 to over US$2 million in the two years since it went online. It is predicted that the largest growth in the use of IT will come from the small and medium sized business and that 90% of all IT jobs and 70% of all demand for IT workers are expected to come from non-IT companies. Small businesses are expected to increase spending on IT from 1.5% of annual turnover to 4.5% by 2002. And skill development takes up a substantial portion IT expenditures of companies– currently estimated at 60% of annual IT budgets (IDC, 1999). Companies and other organizations are spending large amounts of their IT budgets both to develop the IT skills of their existing staff, as well as recruit skilled IT workers. But shortages of skilled IT workers have been legendary and, although the demand has slowed some in the current economic climate, it is expected that developing countries are in the very early stages of generating adequate human capacity in this sector. Consequences of such shortages are numerous, including: slowed economic growth; a loss of foreign investment to countries with greater supplies of trained personnel; missed business opportunities; negative impact on the growth of communications, Internet, electronic commerce and electronic business; inflated salaries and higher turnover of skilled labor, which leads to increased operating costs and lower profits; and outsourcing of IT-related work to overseas markets. Strategies Toward A Solution There are a number of strategies that various countries are taking to support and enhance the development of skilled IT personnel. Because the IT field addresses such a broad range of jobs, skills, uses, certifications and training requirements, much of the activity in this area is an attempt to bring order and clarity to the task. Categories of activities intended to support the rapid deployment of a skilled IT workforce include: establishing partnerships, setting standards, and providing certification for IT skills, trainers and training programs. Partnerships The International Data Corporation (IDC, 1999) recommends that government agencies and local companies accelerate partnerships with IT industry representatives and academic institutions to promote learning in the IT sector. IT-related companies, such as Sun Microsystems, Cisco, Oracle and Novell are "intensely interested in increasing the supply of competent workers that will allow these companies to assess, plan, configure, integrate and deploy products and services effectively and efficiently, with technical certification serving as evidence of competence.” They further note beneficial effects in countries where education ministries and academic institutions have partnered with industry to construct a curriculum that supports the skill needs of the local job econ- ! 53 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org omy (e.g., France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom). Standards and Skills Frameworks A number of organizations, some at national, governmental levels, and others by the industry itself, attempt to bring order to the IT training sector by establishing standards and developing frameworks of IT skills. For example, the Information Technology National Training Organization (ITNTO) sets standards for the IT sector in the United Kingdom, SFIA is in the process of developing an accreditation scheme which in turn guides the development of training courses by and links with existing IS skills frameproviders. The ITNTO then accredits the works, national and international qualificaproviders, who award qualifications. The The Internet tions, training & development opportunities, qualifications are at five levels, with each and the growth and job-classification systems. With the industry sector using this same structure. of information sponsorship of Microsoft, a new report http://www.itnto.org.uk/html/itnto.htm technologies (IT) compares SFIA with the influential ‘IT Skill Standards’ created by Seattle-based North are causing a The ITNTO and the IT industry have develWest Center for Emerging Technologies. radical reoped the IT Occupational Standards and http://www.sfia.org.uk/News/news.html#N Statement of Competence, which represent structuring of WCET (All of the above can be accessed best practice in the IT community and cover governments, through http://www.itnto.org.uk/) the full spectrum of activities carried out by businesses and those who create IT solutions, through to A number of countries are developing skill education prothose who use IT in the course of their day-tostandards and frameworks across a range of viders, with an day work. The IT Standards represent best sectors, and often include telecommunicaincreasing practice in: tions, computers and information technol• using IT; trend toward ogy. Such efforts often involve coalitions • installing and supporting IT systems; and of leaders from business, labor, employees, e-commerce and • developing IT systems. education, and community and civil rights e-learning. organizations and aim to produce a system The ITNTO is responsible for the developof skill standards, assessment and certificament and continuous review of the Standards in consultation tion systems appropriate for the global economy. For examwith industry. This ensures that the Standards reflect what ple, the National Skill Standards Board’s (NSSB) site conindustry needs, and that they are kept up to date. tains an extensive collection of skills-related information on the Internet, and hosts an electronic version of the NSSB The ITNTO Standards underpin the National Vocational Clearinghouse, which houses nearly 1,600 skills-related Qualifications (NVQs) in England and Wales and the Scotdocuments, a categorized system of nearly 200 links to dotish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs) in Scotland. These mestic and international skills certification programs, and qualifications go beyond competence demonstrated by exdetailed information on all industry coalitions. There are also amination to demonstration of an individual's ability to actubrief descriptions of efforts of a number of countries to esally perform the work. There are currently 14 qualifications tablish skills frameworks, including Malaysia, Japan, Ausfor IT. Each qualification framework is a logical grouping of tralia, Denmark and Chile. http://www.nssb.org/ activities (units of competence) likely to be carried out by an individual working in that area. The S/NVQ framework is Certification important because it: Several organizations provide certification of IT trainers and • rationalizes and cross references the system of qualificatraining in order to help consumers avoid investing in poortions within IT, and to all other sectors; quality training. For example, the International Association • enables industry to set the standards for the qualificaof Information Technology Trainers (ITrain) has established tions it needs; a three-tier certification program for IT trainers and training • outlines levels of achievement; organizations. Certification criteria offer a concrete standard • provides clear paths for progression from one qualificafor professional trainers, and every trainer or training comtion to another; and pany is re-evaluated annually to ensure standards are con• opens access to qualifications and promotes education tinually upheld. Individual trainers may pursue certification and training. of their skills as a trainer. Applicants who are full members in good standing and have successfully completed the AdWith regard to information systems (IS) skills, the UK govvanced Train-the-Trainer seminar may apply to be certified ernment has developed a Skills Framework for the Informa- tion Age (SFIA), which describes information systems skills for IS professionals and users. The Framework allows organizations to: • assess their own IS skills; • benchmark their IS skills against competitors and ‘best of breed’ organizations worldwide; and • compare IS suppliers with a common measurement of capability. ! 54 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org as a Professional Technical Trainer (PTT) for a period of one year and may apply for re-certification. Each applicant must submit a 30-minute, non-professional, self-videotape of a training program presentation. The topic must be relevant to their profession and must demonstrate questioning techniques, individual and group interaction, and facility at explaining a technical subject using common language. Also required are, references by at least ten students who have attended training presented by the applicant, and post-class evaluations from ten classes must be included with the application. Training organizations, including non-profit, academic and for-profit training centers may pursue certification as a Professional Training Center (PTC). This certification evaluates the management of training procedures as well as the skills of the individual trainers associated with the training center. The PTC certification is awarded for one year and recertification is authorized. Each trainer employed by the organization must meet the requirements of individual trainer certification. Training materials may be certified under the Professional Training Materials (PTM) program. Authors and publishers of training guides and instructional materials may submit their products for independent review and certification. The PTM certification is granted to a training product indefinitely or until the product is modified. The PTM certification is valid only for full members in good standing. Most major software and networking companies, including Microsoft, Cisco and Oracle, also offer their own certification of trainers, training programs and IT skills. puter education, trade, and research among members, interested parties, and the public; acts as an advisory, consultative and coordinating body for the industry; encourages and promotes cooperation between associations and computer vendors whose objectives are in line with ATCI's; provides and disseminates pertinent information and views related to the computer industry to the public, policy makers and government officials. The organization also convenes training programs, seminars and conferences.” http://www.atci.or.th/ The Information Technology Training Association (ITTA) is an international trade association for professionals and companies involved in the IT Training Industry and is involved in professional development and setting of industry standards. http://www.itta.org/about_us/index.html The International Association of Information Technology Trainers (ITrain) is a non-profit international association of 5,629 information technology professionals located in 158 countries and provides members with access to resources and support services related to IT training. http://www.itrain.org/ The Association of Internet Professionals (AIP) represents more than 8,500 individual Internet professionals and over 125 leading Internet industry companies and educational institutions (www.association.org). The AIP Certification Accreditation Council, an arm of AIP (www.accredit.net), sets standards and accredits various Internet training and certification programs. While it does not create curricula or tests, it does study the curricula and tests of training companies and educational institutions for adherence to a common set of standards. The decision-making board includes leaders in academia, IT staffing, and the software and hardware industries. Professional IT Associations A number of professional associations provide various types of training, certification, guidance and/or support regarding development of an IT workforce. An international index of IT associations is at: http://www.esi.es/Information/ITAssociations/Keywords/IN FORMATION_TECHNOLOGY.html. This site also has an international calendar of IT-related conferences and meetings, news, papers and links. Below are some examples: The Association of Thai Computer Industry (ATCI) “provides and assists in the development of relevant resources and manpower skills necessary to the growth of the computer industry in Thailand; promotes and stimulates the interchange of knowledge, experience and information on com- Tax Credits IT training tax credits are viewed as a prudent, cost-effective way to help large segments of the workforce acquire IT training and jobs. Tax credits also are an efficient way to deliver incentives to small businesses, which typically are unable to afford the high costs of IT training and lack the manpower to keep up with paperwork required to qualify for other support programs. Tax credits are perceived to benefit a country in the long term, since those receiving training are likely to find jobs waiting for them when they finish their training and will then contribute to the economy through the additional personal and corporate income taxes that would otherwise not be generated. Information on tax credits can be found at: http://www.techcoalition.org/ Reference International Data Corporation, IDC (1999). The Internet Economy - An Employment Paradox: A Study into the Network Skills Shortage. An IDC White Paper Sponsored by Cisco Systems. ! 55 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Digital OR Divide Exploring Threats and Opportunities to Participation in Telecenter Initiatives Raul Roman & Royal D. Colle1 Development Communication Research Group, Cornell University INTRODUCTION Knowledge is considered the key to economic and social development, while the new information and communication technologies are contemplated as the consummate vehicle for the transmission of that knowledge. This knowledge-oriented and technology-focused development paradigm is based on the belief that access to telecommunication services, particularly the Internet, will help bring social and economic prosperity to the most disadvantaged sectors of society. In that framework, community-based communication centers, commonly called telecenters, are mushrooming both in industrialized and developing countries with the support of national and international governmental and non-governmental organizations. [TechKnowLogia published many articles on telecenters, which may be accessed in the Journal's archives on line.] Basically, telecenters are shared public facilities that provide telecommunication services to persons who, for various reasons, do not have them available individually. Telecenters have significantly different features and researchers have proposed telecenter typologies and classifications based on multiple variables. But beyond the precariousness of the concept, all telecenters, be they in a village in Sub-Saharan Africa or in South India, or in a remote town in Mexico, Canada or Australia, have an unmistakable characteristic in common: they offer shared access to information and communication technologies (ICT). While in some cases the introduction of ICT services such as telephones in rural areas have been met with eager users (such as the Grameen Phone in Bangladesh), it is generally acknowledged that would-be clientele’s patronage of telecenters is not always spontaneous. Frequently, observers have suggested that physical access is not enough. As Don Richardson states, “it is relatively easy to install the technology for electronic information and communication networks. It is much more difficult to create systems that people actually use and from which they receive tangible benefits” (Richardson, 1997: 53). The challenge is to make telecenters understood, valued and used by the community. In this context, the term ‘digital divide’ might appear as a hazy notion that confuses the real underlying problems, above all when dealing with developing countries. The main issue is not the so-called digital divide, but social, economic, and educational divides (and these divides are not new!) that digital technologies might help to bridge. In this sense, we can start talking about the digital bridge. Telecenters are one of the most visible tools in that widespread effort to try to bridge the other divides. And it is important to realize that these gaps — whether educational, economic or social — are precisely at the core of the obstacles to participation in telecenter activities. That is why telecenter projects that only focus on the access to digital hardware as the magic bullet solution to social and economic development problems, stubbornly ignoring other deficiencies that hinder community participation, are condemned to helpless failure. Telecenters are bricks in the digital bridge if they adopt a participatory approach that systematically encourages community involvement in the design of solutions to development problems through the use of information technology. With that framework in mind, going beyond the simplistic definition of access as mere hardware availability, it is essential to start identifying the main obstacles to community participation in telecenter initiatives and the strategies to overcome them. We address these issues taking examples from fieldwork we have conducted recently, principally in South Africa, India, and Hungary. IDENTIFYING OBSTACLES TO PARTICIPATION Participation is a multi-dimensional concept. It is important that every layer of the concept is considered and analyzed when dealing with telecenter development. Individual Participation We need to think about the uses of the telecenter by a specific community and involvement of community members in ! 56 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org telecenter activities. We can call this individual participation. What are the obstacles to this kind of participation? • Economic obstacles to participation. Can the community pay for the services? If we are considering a business model for a telecenter, for projects targeted at the most disadvantaged areas it is important that the planners have in mind poverty demographics: are the villagers able to pay for the services offered? Research and planning will reveal what services are feasible and affordable. But in this case, should we talk about participants or just clientele?2 We can also ask another question: even if community members are able to afford the services, is the community willing to pay? In an experimental telecenter project in South India, organized and planned by the Swaminathan Foundation and funded by the IDRC, the community is not ready to pay for information services. Telecenters provide a kind of information they think should be public and free. This perception is connected with the fact that many villagers are used to receiving government subsidies and they see the telecenter as a service that should be also supported by state funds. So the services are free. This removes the economic obstacle to participation, but what about the sustainability of the project? The villagers are being very creative in yielding solutions. They are trying to sustain the project financially through community banking practices and the support of self-help groups. The telecenter, as an information and training center which is at the root of self-help group activities and is the promoter of community banking opportunities, is seen by different community groups as essential for their activities. They keep most services free. A share of the money kept in the bank (probably in the form of interest) would serve to pay a salary to telecenter volunteers and to maintain the equipment. • Physical obstacles to participation. Do community members have problems in accessing the center? We have to ask ourselves: where is the telecenter located? It is clear that if the telecenter is away from the usual community meeting points, it might hinder participation. But let us go beyond that. We have an example from a Universal Service Agency (USA) telecenter in South Africa. The telecenter in the township of Mamelodi, in Pretoria, was originally located in the local library. Two years ago they decided to move to an independent location. And Esme Modisane, the telecenter manager, explains the reason why: “the library location was not appropriate because it appeared to the community as an official or government site. People were intimidated by the library and what it means; they think it is for ‘intellectual people’. They do not feel it as their own community center if it is located within the library.”3 In Hungary, the very rural nature of the movement usually means that there are few locations in a community where a telecottage can be placed, so it’s the community that decides. • Social obstacles to participation. Are there any social (including gender and age) or ethnic reasons that impede the participation of some community members in telecenter activities? In a community in Québec, separate locations had to be set up for young people and adults, because each intimidated the other, thereby impeding both groups’ participation. There is a story we were told in South Africa by Paula Middleton, a British Council official who is actively working on telecenters in that country. It is a story about computers. As she explains, “the British Council demonstrated a telecenter at the Commonwealth Summit exhibition in Durban last year. It was very interesting to see the reaction from the public to visiting the telecenter stand. Indian visitors to the stand were confident with using the computers, whereas Black visitors needed encouragement to try out the computers and to navigate the Internet, not sure how the technology could be applied to their own experience. This experience seemed clearly to point to the heritage of previous disadvantage in this country and the challenges faced for the use of technology to enable equitable development. On the other hand, Black children felt very comfortable in front of a computer. And this fact clearly shows that entering the digital age is an educative process.”4 How can we identify these differences and how can we deal with them? It is probably a question of training and awareness raising. However, it is also an issue that should be considered at the planning stages of the project. For example, as part of a strategy to attract women to participate in telecenter activities, the Swaminathan Foundation requires that at least one woman is engaged in the management of each center (for instance, the telecenter in the village of Embalam is ruled by four female volunteers). • Political obstacles to participation. Are there political reasons that restrain the participation of some people? If a telecenter is politicized, it can create power struggles. We can see the example of the first telecenter established by USA, the Gasaleka telecenter, in South Africa’s Northern Province. This telecenter has very good community networks. It is run by the local South Africa National Civic Organization. Every single organization in the area supports and works with the telecenter. According to the telecenter manager, Masilo Mokobane, “the telecenter is well-known, although we need to engage the tribal authorities more. However, we don’t have problems with any organization. We do have problems with some individuals within those organizations, though, because they feel jealous of the resources we have here. But when those reticent individuals are informed, and know the telecenter is here to support the community, they help us. The telecenter cannot be politically driven, because it is for the community.” There are also more subtle aspects of political power. For example, those people in power may discourage or obstruct the community’s use of information technology because of ! 57 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org potential challenge to their authority. In Mexico recently (June 2000), we asked a schoolgirl in a telecenter if her teacher encouraged her to use a computer for her schoolwork. “No,” said the girl, “the teacher is afraid of the computer because we might learn something she doesn’t know.” • Educational obstacles to participation. Are we going to deal with technophobia and with literacy problems? Technophobia is one of the obstacles that prevent the community from getting involved in the activities offered by telecenters. This is again partly a problem of training. However, beyond technology (because technology is just a tool) and fear of technology, what strategies do we use to reach illiterate people and non-users? Do we attempt technology-focused solutions or do we add value to the potential services provided by these technologies (particularly the Internet) to help those who, for educational or other reasons, cannot directly benefit from those technologies? Another way of asking this question is: how much do we try to change the user and how much do we change the service. To overcome educational obstacles, the concept of value addition, as we address below, is of paramount importance. that will package information for their constituents. Four of these are presently organized. • Finally, is the community aware of the potential of ICT? As Richard Fuchs states, “people need to be encouraged to become involved in ‘information-seeking behavior.’ Simply put, people need to come to learn that it is worth their while to take the time and trouble to find information to help solve their problems” (Fuchs, 1998). How can we overcome these obstacles? Here we are dealing with marketing and awareness raising, with creation of value addition products (and this might be related to training issues), and with research and analysis related to the socioeconomic dynamics of a community. Collective Participation We need to think about who is going to be involved in telecenter planning and management. We can call it collective participation. We are generally talking about community ownership, and so there are community steering committees that set the direction of the telecenters and supervise the work of the telecenter manager. This happens in countries like Canada and South Africa. We have to ask ourselves: • How well is the community represented in the steering committee? This question is difficult to answer, and it really depends on the community structure to decide what stakeholders should be represented in the committee. • What are the problems that this kind of management entails? We can see the example of the USA telecenters in South Africa. The system permits not only joint decision making and evaluation, but also higher financial transparency. However, “the added layers of ownership mean that decision-making is subject to bureaucratic layers. The effect of this is a less proactive style of management. Decisions cannot be made immediately, as and when they are needed” (Stavrou et al., 2000). Besides that, in South Africa, telecenter applications submitted by community organizations are evaluated by an USA team. It is worth noting that “application-based systems are more accessible to the betterendowed, well-organized communities and groups, but are less effective in reaching marginalized groups, sectors and regions” (Stavrou et al., 2000). • Does the community know about the telecenter? The obstacle to participation here is very straightforward: simple ignorance of the existence of the telecenter. This question is seemingly superfluous because it is often taken for granted as a basic prerequisite that the community knows what a telecenter is, where it is, and what it offers. But we need to ask ourselves this question too. Active marketing and awarenesscreation are possible responses to this threat. In a Canadian community, just changing the name from a somewhat forbidding “Community Access Program Site” to “cybercafe” increased the visibility and use of the facility. • In any case, given they know the telecenter is there, does the community feel what the telecenter offers is relevant to them? In India, the Swaminathan Foundation is making a big effort in this direction: trying to make the telecenter relevant to the served communities. As part of their telecenter project, they have established a value addition telecenter. This center collects and repackages information (thus making the information locally relevant) on a daily basis, and makes it available to a network of telecenters through a wireless communication system. For example, they placed a telecenter in the fishing village of Verampatinam where they found that many local fishermen, most of them illiterate, expressed the need to have timely information on weather forecast and wave height. To meet this need, the value addition center downloads every day the weather information from the US Navy web site, translates it to Tamil, the local language, and then sends it to the local telecenter as an audio file. These files are then played through several loudspeakers located in front of the center and near the seashore. In Hungary, the leaders have planned for seven regional telecottage support centers EXPLORING STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE PARTICIPATION It is important to put participation in perspective. Experience in the field teaches one quickly that in many social structures, participation does not happen spontaneously; and, when participation becomes a part of the creed of an intervention, its lack of specificity can cause confusion if not frustration. For example, in Canada, leaders in community access centers reported that participation was one of their ! 58 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org goals but they had not been able to get to it yet. Here are three ways to approach participation in a telecenter project where the sociopolitical climate is supportive: 1. Develop an explicit participation strategy in the planning stages. The strategy should address at least the following questions: • Why is participation important to this project? Among the answers might be: because it conveys a sense of community ownership; it provides indigenous wisdom; it helps reflect community values and needs; it provides important resources, such as volunteers or technical expertise, at a favorable cost. • Who should participate? It is not enough to say “the community.” Who should receive attention because of the possibility they will be marginalized — like women, poor people, minorities, and the elderly? • How might people participate? The easy answer is to say that all can participate through use of the ICT facilities. But there are other potential dimensions of community participation in a telecenter: volunteers who oversee daily operations, tutors who give lessons, advisory groups for different aspects of the operations, people who provide links to other community organizations, and people who manage particular data bases and add value to information resources. • How much participation should be sought? Is maximum participation the goal, or should there be a target called optimal participation? It is not hard to imagine, that there can be a situation where there is too much participation. • When should participation take place? It probably should begin no later than the time in the planning when participation itself is being considered. Being specific about the timing avoids the “we haven’t got to that yet” explanation. • What incentives can be offered? Money and public recognition are important, but so too are special privileges regarding use of telecenter facilities or discounts from shops in the community (which is a way that merchants can participate). 2. Make a commitment to training and have a comprehensive training program regarding the role of information and accessing it through ICTs. This starts with training the community about the significance of participation and the public’s role in it. It extends to potential partners in community health, educational, agricultural, and governmental institutions, as well as local “civil society organizations.” Obviously a significant effort needs to go into training telecenter managers and staff, an effort that encompasses a range of skills from basic information needs assessment and information management to facilitating participation — all of which are intricately interconnected in a system of skills. 3. Build research into startup and on-going operations. In their efforts to get the Internet hooked up and computers operational, often relatively little attention is given to assessing community information needs, including the felt needs of the people and normative needs (those seen, for example, by professionals). A continuous research program needs also to monitor on-going telecenter services to the community (and its perceptions about them), and try to measure impact. We have approached a variety of organizations — including ecommerce ones, whose success depends on meeting needs in the marketplace — about developing practical tools for these kinds of research without finding much enthusiasm and even less funding. Clearly, the extent to which there will be enthusiastic and continual participation depends on how telecenters are meeting community needs. REFERENCES 1.Fuchs, Richard (1998). Little Engines That Did. [Online] Available: http://www.idrc.ca/acacia 2.Richardson, Don (1997). The Internet and Rural and Agricultural Development. FAO: Rome. 3.Stavrou, A., Benjamin, P., Burton, P., McCarthy, C. (2000). Telecentres 2000. The Way Forward. DRA Development-Link 4.Centre: South Africa. [Online] Available: http://www.sn.apc.org/community 1 Raul Roman is a Ph.D. candidate at the Communication Department of Cornell University; Dr. Royal D. Colle is professor of Communication and director of the Development Communication Research Group at Cornell University. Both have been doing extensive research on telecenters, and are now developing a training manual for telecenter management with support from ITU and FAO. The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the International Telecommunication Union and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations that made the research on which this article is based possible. The authors also want to thank Peter Benjamin, University of Wits, Johannesburg, and the Swaminathan Foundation for their support in the field. 2 It is important to realize that, in broad terms, there is a telecenter model that mostly focuses on cost-effective connectivity (and the champions of this model are mainly concerned about infrastructure problems and business opportunities). And there is another more comprehensive option that concentrates on a multidimensional concept of access (and this group is principally concerned about content development strategies and formulation of context specific ideas for community development through ICTs). When we deal with the concept of participation in telecenter development it is essential that we clarify what kind of telecenter model are we considering. This common confusion about the objectives and function of telecenters might explain the difficulties of some projects to actively trigger community participation. In South Africa, for example, a telecenter is “seen as both a resource that is to be used to benefit the community, and as a business that must retain itself financially” (Stavrou, 2000). Also, if we are dealing with mere small business initiatives, how can we speak of the feeling of community ownership that is at the core of participation? 3 Esme Modisane, personal communication. Pretoria, South Africa, February 2000. 4 Paula Middleton, personal communication. Johannesburg, South Africa, February 2000. ! 59 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Editorial Staff E-learning. Web-based training. Educommerce. Online learning. Call it what you will, but it hasn’t taken long for people to realize that education definitely has a place on the Internet. The diversified nature of the Internet allows for unprecedented individualized control over the learning process and can be accessed by anyone, anywhere, anytime with a computer and an online connection. With the convergence of video and audio into one multimedia source, fora such as chat rooms, webcasts, email and videoconferences are being used as e-learning tools in a wide variety of educational and corporate settings. Education Applications of Technological Devices Innovative application of e-learning solutions can be found in some unassuming places. The quiet campus of the University of Minnesota-Crookston (UMC) seems an unlikely location to find the most cutting-edge e-learning solutions in action, but UMC has gained international notoriety as one of the first universities to implement ubiquitous connectivity on campus. Before class, students at UMC can access the latest lecture notes on a professor’s website to prepare for an online quiz, which is then instantly graded and recorded using special software. Other students may engage in topical chat room discussions, view a PowerPoint presentation, work together on a Word document, view webcasted courses from another university or critique the marketing techniques of a major company by examining its website content in class. These capabilities are standard on the UMC-issued laptops so no student is denied e-learning opportunities due to financial, social or technical reasons. Many other universities such as Columbia, Michigan State and Berkeley are following UMC’s lead by developing customized elearning portals, encouraging student chat rooms, bringing “virtual” speakers to classrooms and engaging in multischool partnerships through videoconferencing and interactive online discussions. The advent of e-learning has also forced educational institutions and businesses to become increasingly interdependent. Because many parents and students seek out school districts based on technological capacity, universities, K-12 schools and private businesses are partnering to manage the complex equipment required for an attractive level of connectivity. In the U.S., for example, Palm is supplying handheld devices to serve as mobile computing units that can double as scientific instruments for measuring the pH in a chemical solution or a water sample from a pond. The information can then be recorded, downloaded and sent to a central computer for further analysis. Chat rooms are being used by high school students to access and discuss assignments from home, work, band rehearsal or anyplace else they might have access to a connected computer. And just like the business world, students are demanding lighter, more mobile options for their learning tools. Companies like Palm and Handspring are marketing their mobile devices as cheaper alternatives to cumbersome PCs. Palm even offers teachers training courses in educational applications of Palm devices. Smelling savings and increased efficiency, businesses have naturally been quick to incorporate e-learning applications to reduce costs, train employees, increase motivation and conduct virtual meetings with clients or employees around the globe without the logistics and expense of travel. Currently, U.S. companies are spending an estimated $66 billion annually on employee training, but only about $3 ! 60 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org billion of that amount goes to e-learning products. However, the National Institute for Standards and Technology recently projected that the e-learning market will reach a sizeable $46 billion by 2005. For many companies, the savings can be significant. IBM saved an estimated $175 million from its whopping $1billion training budget using e-learning services. Other companies like Cisco Systems have moved administrative functions online so employees from London to Lima can receive standardized information and training. Not Without Controversy Even though it has the potential to maximize the best aspects of the Internet and multimedia, e-learning is not without controversy, critics or drawbacks. According to Forrester Research, the three most common barriers to successful elearning include lack of human interaction, cultural resistance and lack of bandwidth. No matter how realistic the video image or how natural the sound, the subtleties of human communication can be lost in the whoosh of a keystroke. The social disconnection can also make sustained participation in online courses less compelling, and is often cited as a primary cause of higher dropout rates observed in many virtual classrooms. Another concern is that everyone who wishes to participate in an online course or videoconference must have reasonably compatible equipment and software, which can be costly to purchase and maintain. This can also pose a problem for people in countries or regions with low bandwidth, expensive Internet connectivity fees or poor infrastructure. In addition to logistical issues, many educators question the efficacy of e-learning versus traditional teaching methods. The jury is still out as to whether or not e-learning really maximizes critical thinking, writing, spelling and quantitative skills, or just wows students with sensory bombardment and flashy graphics. Despite the controversy surrounding some e-learning techniques, most forecasts predict only growth in the elearning industry over the next five years. There are strong differences among technology analysts and educators on how e-learning is best applied, but most agree on one thing: Call it what you will, but e-learning is here to stay. The Shortest Distance Between Two Cities An example of a typical e-learning interaction would be a videoconference session between training specialists in Hong Kong and employees in Mexico City. Participants could be connected by landline, a closed LAN network, broadband satellite, ISDN or any high speed line (however, differences in connectivity rates and camera frame speeds can make audio and video choppy). A video camera mounted on a computer sends a series of still picture frames that are then compressed by the sender’s software and decompressed by the receiver’s software to form (ideally) a smooth stream of video and audio. With specialized videoconferencing software, participants can also use a collaborative “whiteboard” to do real-time brainstorming, remote desktop sharing or instantaneous file transfers. The trainer in Hong Kong might go over a PowerPoint presentation or teach a new production technique without ever meeting the employees in Mexico City. Those same employees in Mexico City might watch a livestreaming webcast by the company chairman in France on the purpose of the new training, the status of company sales and the business strategy for the months to come. The webcast event might also combine chat room technology and supplemental documents with live audio and video. Using programs like QuickTime, Real Audio or Windows Media to digitize and display images, the chairman’s speech can be accessed live by thousands of employees around the world. Reference Ramstad, Evan. “A campus connected,” The Wall Street Journal, March 12, 2001. Tam, Pui-Wing. “Tools of the future,” The Wall Street Journal, March 12, 2001. http://www.learningcircuits.org/ www.business2.com/content/magazine/ebusiness/2000/11/20 /23486?page=2 http://chronicle.com/free/2001/03/2001032001u.htm ! 61 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org There are multitudes of resources found on the web related to e-learning in the workplace. Below you will find a handful of these e-learning resources, both for the corporation interested in starting a corporate e-learning program, and for the student interested in enhancing workplace skills individually. Selected by John Yoshito Jones* America’s Learning eXchange http://www.alx.org This is a Web portal to 6,000 U.S. education and training providers and more than 300,000 programs, seminars, and courses. Some are offered through the Web. Note: This portal does not screen providers or courses; anyone who wants can list their courses. American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) http://www.astd.org ASTD is one of the leading professional organizations concerned with learning in the workplace. Its members include corporate officials responsible for training, academics who specialize in workplace learning, and consultants who help businesses with education and training. ASTD funds research, publishes numerous books and journals, and sponsors an annual international conference on learning in the workplace. The Association of MBAs Special Interest Group http://www.mba.org.uk/ http://www.corporateuniversity.org.uk/ The first site is the parent site for providers and students of MBA programs (Masters of Business Administration) in the United Kingdom. The second site, which is part of the first, is a forum for exchanging ideas, “best practices,” and information regarding corporate universities. The Corporate University http://www.corporate-u.com The Corporate University’s Web site indexes many executive development programs, management seminars, and other education and training of use in corporate education. It also rates faculty strengths for the executive development programs, although the basis of the ratings is not clear. ! 62 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org The Corporate University Xchange http://www.corpu.com The Corporate University Xchange is both a professional association and consulting firm for companies seeking to establish their own corporate universities. It offers seminars, books, and memberships, and an annual conference. The Corporate University Review http://www.traininguniversity.com/ This is the first online journal devoted to corporate universities. Subscribers can access past issues as well as the current one. The Distance Education Clearinghouse http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html Run by the University of Wisconsin Extension program, this site provides links to numerous resources, including a section for those new to web-based distance education. EdSurf http://www.edsurf.net Billing itself as the online distance learning resource for adult learners, EdSurf has numerous free links to distance learning resources. E-learners.com http://www.elearners.com/gna/schools.asp This Web site offers a list of U.S. colleges and universities providing web-based distance education from the associate’s degree to doctoral level, as well institutions offering web-based training in a variety of fields. The European Consortium for the Learning Organisation http://www.eclo.org ECLO is a European network of business and academic professionals seeking to improve the relationship between businesses and educational organizations through research and collaboration. Petersons.Com Distance Learning http://www.petersons.com/dlearn/dlsector.html Peterson’s publishes popular Web-based and hardcopy guides to higher education programs in the U.S. This Web site indexes many courses and programs offered by distance technology. * John Yoshito Jones is a Master’s Degree student and graduate assistant in the Education Policy Program at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. ! 63 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Bringing 3-D Animation to the Classroom Tressa Steffen Gipe Despite the shaky economy and gloomy industry forecasts, telecommunications and information technology chatter still focuses predominantly on tangible technological advancements such as building better fiber optic networks, creating greater bandwidth and rolling out new mobile devices. Far fewer headlines are made, however, by equally significant, albeit less dazzling applications of the latest technologies for the physically and learning impaired. In particular, remarkable progress has been made in the field of 3-D computergenerated animation, which can help people with autism, profound deafness, stroke-related aphasia and linguistic learning disabilities improve pronunciation, lip-reading, vocabulary, language fluency or other linguistic skills. Three-D animation has become common in amusement parks, cartoons, video games and TV commercials, but until recently, expensive production costs kept the broader use of interactive 3-D animation to a minimum. Through research and development in both the private sector and academia, costs for 3-D animation programs have diminished with the introduction of PC-based programs that mimic the complex oral dynamics and subtle facial expressions of a human being. Many of these programs can be run on most 95/98/00 Windows and Linux operating systems, and are accessible to anyone with 64 MB RAM and over. Bringing a New Dimension to the Classroom At the Tucker-Maxon Oral School in Portland, Oregon, 3-D animation is being applied in the form of a computerized language tutor named Baldi. A wide-eyed, glossy-cheeked fellow with rosy lips, the unassuming Baldi holds the distinction of being the most accurate computer-generated copy of visible human speech in the world. Developed at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Baldi was designed on a principle that is intuitive to anyone who has begun a foreign language or taught a child to read: people learn language best by watching, hearing and doing. Profoundly and partially deaf children at Tucker-Maxon apply this same principle by watching Baldi form words, which they mimic with the assistance of Baldi’s real-time feedback. Baldi is also capable of showing internal teeth, tongue and jaw movements to bring the most natural approximation to human speech possible. When using Baldi, many children are assisted by headphones connected to an acoustic nerve implant that converts sounds into electrical stimuli, which are then relayed to parts of the brain responsible for decoding sound and language. Baldi can also be adapted to each student’s needs depending on the level of development or severity of disability. Coupled with supplemental language training, Baldi is yielding impressive improvements in lipreading, pronunciation and fluency skills for children at Tucker-Maxon and elsewhere. Clearly interactive 3-D programs like Baldi have applications to other children with disabilities. Animated 3-D programs are also helpful to children with social disorders such as autism, which commonly manifests an inability to develop normal social relations, communicative abilities and, in some cases, visuospatial skills. In particular, many autistic children will use single words, phrase sentences as questions, engage in echolalia (speech imitation) and echopraxia (movement imitation), all of which create awkwardness for social interactions with others. However, 3-D programs can at least provide vocabulary-building, facial expression and pronunciation exercises to facilitate their interactions with the outside world. Three-D programs can also be used by people with ! 64 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org dyslexia, stroke-related aphasia and common speech impediments to improve language skills. ideally, the word is recognized or synthesized by the system. The 3-D animation component is created using a set of static pictures that can be combined in unlimited combinations to form the appropriate facial expressions, lip movements and sounds to accompany a replicated or generated stream of words. Of course, many analysts foresee possibilities that extend far beyond the rather small market that currently exists for 3-D animated language technologies. Many predict that interactive 3-D animated speech recognition/synthesis technologies will become commonplace in personal computers, bank machines and drive-throughs. As the technology develops, it will certainly have broader applications in educational and business settings where teaching and training are conducted. For instance, a business could use a 3-D tutor to train employees in basic business Japanese before they go abroad to present products. A school could train students to expand vocabulary through interactive drills with a 3-D image that gives feedback with synonyms, antonyms or examples of the word in a sentence. All the possibilities sound exciting, but it remains to be seen if people will be comfortable with non-human entities interacting with them on such a sophisticated level. Predictions aside, the fact that complex technologies like interactive 3-D animation are being used to make people’s lives quantitatively and qualitatively better speaks to the importance of continued innovation in even the most fledgling technological markets. Beyond the headlines, video games and theme parks, 3-D animation demonstrates that creative application of commercial technologies for people with (or without) disabilities can open up an entirely new dimension in computer-assisted learning: the human one. *The large-vocabulary models are not necessarily available with 3-D animation, however. http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/primetime/2020/primet ime_010315_baldi_feature.html#2 http://www.tmos.org http://mambo.ucsc.edu/ http://www.indiatimes.com/infotech/help/software/voicereq. html http://www.idg.net/english/crd_recognition_173310.html The Future is Now The private sector originally generated most of the 3-D technology that is used in learning settings like Tucker-Maxon. There continues to be significant innovation in the 3-D animation world that will likely lead to more sophisticated educational applications in the future. Most notably, companies are beginning to market programs that blend speech recognition and synthesis with 3-D animation to create a highly interactive computer learning environment. Some speech synthesis and recognition programs are so sophisticated, in fact, that they can possess anywhere from 5,000 to 50,000 vocabulary word repertoires that do not require training for different human voices.* A company called Sensory has developed a Fluent Animated Speech program that uses text and spoken words to elicit a response or simulation through 3-D animated characters. With a speech recognition and synthesis component, sound is usually transferred via microphone to the sound card, which then is processed into sonic frequencies using mathematical and statistical methods. The frequencies are checked at regular increments (say, every 1/100th of a second) and then analyzed by the speech recognizer for patterns that fit the smallest block of human speech called a phoneme. The phonemic components are compared with a word database and, ! 65 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org African Global Information Infrastructure Gateway Project: The Leland Initiative* In early l995, very few people in Sub-Saharan Africa had heard of the Internet and even fewer saw any potential for its use in Africa. Only about 1,000 people outside of South Africa used the Internet. South Africa, Namibia, Ghana, Uganda, and Zambia were the only African countries that managed their own Internet connections. Recognizing the power of the Internet and its potential as an important development tool in the African context, the U.S. Agency for International Development launched the African Global Information Infrastructure (GII) Gateway Project – more commonly known as the Leland Initiative, in February of 1995. The project, which ended last December, was designed to extend full Internet connectivity to a minimum of 20 sub-Saharan African nations. The goal was to facilitate and encourage Internet use by Africans and their international development partners to meet the challenges of achieving sustainable development. The initiative addressed many of the regulatory, technical, and user-based challenges by involving a number of partners with a variety of expertise. The Academy for Educational Development was asked to build demand for the Internet among the development community, and spearheaded an approach to help development organizations build skills and create strategies to use the Internet effectively. integrating the Internet into an organization. By the end of the training sessions, each organization created an action plan outlining their feasible next steps in introducing or using the Internet in their organization. This two-pronged training approach imparted the necessary skills to those who were poised to help their organizations begin to consider the Internet as a viable tool and reflect on how this might be achieved. Most training sessions lasted two days, enough time to get participants familiar with the software and issues that email and Web use involve. It was intended to be an introduction that would get participants interested and comfortable enough to use the Internet after the training was over. By providing participants with exposure to the Internet’s resources and capabilities, they were able to understand how the Internet could be of use to them and their organizations. The program took advantage of the Leland Initiative training to set the stage for further networking by grouping participants by sector – education, economic growth, environment, health, and so on. In this way, when organization representatives planned their next action steps, they could also plan with other similar organizations, and even come together as sector Internet champions. Given that a variety of kinds of organizations participated, this promoted some public-private collaboration around expanding access to information for the sector, and building people’s interest in advocating their mandates on an international scale. Through the training, people in government agencies, nonprofit organizations, private sector entities, and donor agencies acquired an understanding of the potential uses of the Internet for development, built necessary skills, and became advocates for using it. More than 1,500 African development partners and selected USAID staff from nine African countries participated in the training. Training-oftrainers (TOT) sessions introduced Leland Training content and techniques to over 182 host country trainers for their future use. End-User Assessments Early Leland Initiative assessments conducted in Ghana, Benin and Mali found that though very few people had had exposure to the Internet aside from what they learned through international media, many, nonetheless, had an understanding of and appreciation for the importance of information sharing. As a result of having talked with more than 85 partner organizations in Ghana, Benin, and Ethiopia, we developed a list of indicators that would help determine an organization’s readiness for effective Internet use. These indicators formed the basis for the design of a training program called Internet for Development and its accompanying training manual “Making the Internet Connection Count: Effective Use of the Internet in Seven Steps.” Training The Internet for Development training focused on the fundamentals of Internet use and provided guidance on assessing information use and action planning strategies for Evaluation of the Training Given the incredible growth and the changes in the Internet environment over the last five years, AED conducted a survey to better understand how the Internet for Development training worked in support of and contributed to ! 66 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org these changes in Africa. The survey was conducted in four countries – Ethiopia, Benin, Madagascar, and Mali. Partners for Internet in Education, Ghana As a result of Internet training for teachers as a part of the Leland Initiative’s School-to-School Partnership program, a core group of Ghanaian teachers formed an association entitled Partners for Internet in Education (PIE). PIE has since brought together teachers and administrators from over 40 schools in three cities to harness the potential of the Internet for education. PIE members have not only been active advocates and lobbyists for the need of the Internet in Ghanaian schools, but have established a public access center in the national library, with the help of USAID and AED. a problem. Overall, though, almost everyone (98 percent) agreed that the Internet has a role in helping their organizations accomplish their goals by providing better access to information and making communication easier. Africa After Leland and Lessons Learned By November 2000, all 54 African nations had been connected. The number of users has climbed to 150,000 (in all of Sub-Saharan Africa, except South Africa). Lessons from the survey include the following: • People are using Internet for development, and are sharing information and skills. Many barriers at the national and institutional levels have been overcome, and those that still exist are sometimes overcome through other means, such as using cybercafés. • Users can gain a great deal from the Internet, even if access is not consistent and reliable. The training’s emphasis on understanding what the Internet can offer and how it can best be used went a long way in inspiring participants to use the Internet in spite of technical problems. • The Internet can change the way institutions operate, especially if it affects the bottom line. • Training needs to be followed-up by other assistance if people have to change the way the organization operates. • Champions are an essential element of the technology advocacy and adoption process. • Training executives and managers to understand the implications of Internet use for their organizations is essential to the adoption process. The Leland Initiative, and AED’s role in developing a significant user base, has contributed greatly to the ability of Africans to understand, access, and use the Internet, opening up untold opportunities for obtaining and sharing information worldwide. Such information exchange has the potential to bring data and knowledge to a host of subject areas like never before, significantly enhancing development policy and practice. Two hundred seventy-eight (278) former training participants were interviewed; a quarter of them were from nongovernmental organizations, another quarter belonged to government institutions and universities, 10 percent were from the private sector, and a third were USAID staff. Those that did not fall into these categories were teachers, doctors, and other non-development technical specialists. The vast majority of the survey respondents (92 percent) indicated that they had used the Internet since the training. Almost as many (90 percent), had Internet connections in their organizations, about half of whom had only one computer connected. Most of those working for host country organizations use it in their offices (82 percent). Some, however, still visit cyber-centers to get access (16 percent). More than half (51 percent) of the respondents have trained others to use the Internet. Though people and organizations have been gaining access to the Internet and using it to improve their communication and outreach, the process has not necessarily been an easy one. Of those USAID partner organizations connecting through the host-country infrastructure, many (36 percent) sited a lack of physical resources (funds, computers, phone line, funds for online time) as a barrier to their Internet use. In addition, almost a third said that a lack of training posed * Education Center for Women in Democracy, Kenya As a result of support from USAID/Kenya and the Leland Initiative training, the Education Centre for Women in Democracy (ECWD) created a Web site for the organization (www.arcc.or.ke/ecwd). The ECWD “hopes to assist women not only to become more active in politics but also to secure leadership position in political parties, parliament and government.” Their Web site includes information about relevant international conferences, membership to ECWD, and their newsletter and publications. Summarized by AED staff from a Report on the Leland Project. The full report is available at: http://www.dec.org/pdf_docs/PDABT218.pdf For further information, contact David Wolfe, Deputy Project Director for Research & Reference Services,
[email protected] ! 67 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org COUNTRY PROFILE Distance Education in Poland Miroslaw J. Kubiak* Polish Association of Teachers of Computer Science ul. Nauczycielska 2/4 86-300 Grudziadz, Poland e-mail:
[email protected] INTRODUCTION Distance education in Poland has existed for over 200 years. In 1776, Jagiellonian University was the first organization that tried to lead correspondence vocational courses for Polish craftsmen. In the 19th and 20th centuries some Polish educational associations (Towarzystwo Kursow Akademickich dla Kobiet, Powszechne Wyklady Uniwersyteckie) had been engaged in open learning. Between 1966 – 1971, many Polish graduate students after secondary schools could take part in television courses (physics and mathematics) to prepare for universities and technical universities [1]. The last decade was a period of rapid development in the telecommunication area. It created a possibility for teaching at a distance via the Internet. At the present, there are four institutions that offer distance education [2] (Table 1): • Distance Education Center at Technical University of Gdansk - DECTUG (Centrum Edukacji Niestacjonarnej Politechniki Gdanskiej); • Kielce University of Technology, Center for Continuing Education - Distance Education Center (Centrum Ksztalcenia Ustawicznego - Osrodek Edukacji Niestacjonarnej w Kielcach); • The Distance Education Certificate Program at the University of Lodz, (Studia Podyplomowe Podstawy Nauczania na Odleglosc przy Uniwersytecie Lodzkim); and • Virtual University at the Institute for Vocational Training in Warsaw (Uniwersytet Wirtualny przy Instytucie Ksztalcenia Zawodowego w Warszawie). 1. Distance Education Center at Technical University of Gdansk (DECTUG) Distance Education Center at Technical University of Gdansk (TUG) was established on 30th April, 1997 [3]. DECTUG is responsible for: • Creating access for students and staff of TUG to studymaterials, corresponding lessons, scripts and a communication environment using LAN (Local Area Network), MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) and WAN (Wide Area Network) facilities. • Developing distance education course modules and adaptation of existing European Union distance education course modules in subject areas of importance for economic and social development in Poland. • Improving access to education and training by establishing a flexible teaching environment concerning space, time, choice of course providers and teaching resources. DECTUG offers a range of alternative methods of access to the course materials: • Distribution of the course modules via e-mail, CDROM’s, and World Wide Web. • Accessing the course modules from DECTUG. • Accessing the course modules from co-operating distance education centers in PHARE (Poland and Hungary - Assistance to the Reconstruction of the Economy) countries or countries in Western Europe. • Using printed material on special demand. ! 68 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org 2. Kielce University of Technology, Center for Continuing Education - Distance Education Center The Center for Continuing Education (CCE) has participated in the PHARE Multi-country Program for Distance Education since April 1998 [4]. The Program made possible the opening of 40 Distance Education Study Centers (DESC) in Central-Eastern European countries, including 8 Centers in Poland. The CCE created DESC, which is focused on implementation and development of Distance Education Courses. Within its framework, the CCE is preparing three courses in distance education: Computer Architecture, AutoCAD (via Internet) and an English Course in dual mode. The CCE is a member of European Distance Education Network (EDEN). framework of the Virtual University. The Institute is the first institution in Poland that has undertaken, on such a wide scale, the task of determining the place and possibilities of incorporating modern computer technologies into the education and information processes [6]. The project started in 1995 and at present the instructional offerings at the Virtual University consist of such useful faculties as: • computer science, • public administration, • environmental protection, • European integration. The basic training unit is an Internet session that covers a part of the material for a given subject (each subject is divided into a few thematic parts). Each Internet session consists of: • a lecture presenting the subject; • a set of tasks or exercises with answers; the exercises are to illustrate the lecture; • topics to be studied and prepared by the student; and • a set of exercises to be done by the student. During the course of study in a given subject, a student opens Internet sessions progressively. The student has to study the material, solve the exercises attached to each session and send the solutions (via electronic mail) to the Institute for Vocational Training. Then the answers are checked and the results, with corrections, are sent back to the student, also via electronic mail (each student gets an individual Internet address after registering as a student of the Virtual University). The full training cycle for the first faculty lasts 3.5 years and can be completed by obtaining the title of a Qualified Engineer of Information Technology. Within the same course of studies, after 1.5 years, the students can pass external exams and obtain the title of Information Technology Associate. The second part of the 3.5-year course is provided in the form of regular studies that can be completed at the University of Information Technology and Management in Warsaw. Possible positive results of the first-phase research work may be the basis for continuing virtual training during the second stage of studies. 3. The Distance Education Certificate Program at the University of Lodz This program came into existence at the University of Lodz in October 1997. It is a unique program in Poland for teachers and administrators, who want to use distance education methods in their work [5]. The post-graduate one year program was established by the Polish - American Management Center and the Faculty of Education at the University of Lodz. Its program has been based on the experience of the University of Maryland and Prince George’s Community College (USA), where a large number of students use long distance learning methods. At present, most of the classes are done by the long distance method, but there are also class sessions offered once or twice a month since not all of the students have access to a telephone or computer network. The current group of 30 students lives throughout Poland and are graduates from different university level institutions including: universities, technical universities, or medical schools. Faculty members from the University of Lodz conduct the courses. Classes are divided into lectures, exercises, and selfdevelopment modules. Some of the courses are to be conducted directly from the University of Maryland using compressed video. CONCLUSION Beside the four above-mentioned institutions in Poland there are some small centers of distance education, mainly located near the Center for Continuing Education, which can offer different vocational courses. Moreover, some educational organizations offer correspondence courses. During 2001, Polish Television (public TV) intends to create an Open 4. Virtual University at the Institute for Vocational Training in Warsaw The Institute for Vocational Training undertook an attempt to apply computer technologies in distance learning within the ! 69 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org Television University, which will give many students an opportunity to take part in diploma programs at a distance. Although there are many people interested in distance education, it is still not very popular in Poland. The main barriers are: • lack of proper regulations; • • • • too expensive technology; too low transmission speed for multimedia; not all of the students have access to Internet; and distance education via Internet is still expensive in comparison with traditional education. Table 1. Distance Educational Institutions In Poland Distance Education Centre at Kielce University of TechnolTechnical University of ogy, Centre for Continuing Gdansk - DECTUG Education - Distance Education Centre http://www.cku.tu.kielce.pl WWW address http://www.pg.gda.pl/dec/ Name of educational institution The Distance Education Certificate Program at the University of Lodz http://pamctr.uni.lodz.pl Virtual University at the Institute for Vocational Training in Warsaw Educational status Experimental didactic unit Distance Education Study Centre since April 1998 Education offer Distance education courses Distance education courses Enrolments Program About 200 students • AutoCAD • English for Work, English for Environmental Awareness • Programming in Pascal • ENVIMAN - Environmental Management • WAWAMAN - Water and Waste Water Management. • • • • ? • Computer Architecture Basics • AutoCAD 13 - I Level • English Language Course • Business Organization Industrial Organization • Business Economics and Finance. Media e-mail World Wide Web CD - ROM Printed material on special demand. • Internet (e-mail, WWW) • Printed material http://www.uniwersytetwirtualny.edu.pl/index1.htm Post-graduate Certificate pro- Project of Virtual Univergram for teachers and admin- sity (VU) works at two istrators, who want to use levels: as didactic and as distance education methods in scientific research unit. their work. VU has 4 regional centres. One year post-graduate cer• secondary vocational tificate program training • post-secondary training • higher vocational school training About 30 students About 60 students The Postgraduate Distance The didactic offer at the Education Program covers: Virtual University consists of such faculties as: • teacher's role in distance learning, • computer science • distance learning technol• public administration ogy, • environmental protection • distance education methods, • organisation of distance • European integration education centres, • communicating at a distance. • printed material • Internet (e-mail, WWW) • video tapes • Printed material • CD - ROM • voice mail, • Internet • Teleconferences REFERENCES [1] M. J. Kubiak, Internet for teachers. Learning on distance, MIKOM, Warsaw 1997, r., ISBN 83-7158-177-7, (in Polish). [2] M. J. Kubiak, Virtual education, MIKOM, Warsaw 2000, ISBN 83-7279-032-9, (in Polish). [3] Distance Education Centre at Technical University of Gdansk - http://www.pg.gda.pl/dec/ [4] Kielce University of Technology, Centre for Continuing Education - Distance Education Centre http://www.cku.tu.kielce.pl. [5] The Distance Education Certificate Program at the University of Lodz - http://pamctr.uni.lodz.pl/ [6] Virtual University - http://www.uniwersytet-wirtualny.edu.pl/index1.htm. * Miroslaw J. Kubiak is editor of "Wirtualna Edukacja" ("Virtual Education") - Polish online journal of distance education http://lttf.ieee.org/we . ! 70 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2001 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org